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STORED-PRODUCT INSECT INVESTIGATIONS 
E. A. Back, Senior Entomologist, in Charge 
During October Dr. Back visited California to consult with Bureau 
specialists working with stored-product insects. On the way out and while he 
was on the Coast he inspected some work of private firms, of interest to the 
Bureau. Of especial interest were the heat and fumigating rooms constructed 
for the treatment of furniture, 2nd the work of firms actively engaged in 
moth=proofing fabrics, 
J. C, Hamlin and W. D. Reed, of Fresno, Calif., in the early part 
of November fumigated more than half a million dollars! worth of dried fruits 
with sulphur dioxide, carbon disulphide, and hydrocyanicmacid gas. These 
were practical fumigations on a large scale, and gave valuable results. 
S. £4, McClendon, Thomasville, Ga., reports that the fall examina- 
tions of corn grown and housed on St. Simons Island, Gs., showed that no 
rice weevils were present. This fact is of interest, because when the con- 
trol experiments were started on this island about four years ago, the rice 
weevil was a very serious and widespread pest, 
Dr.. Back was present in Kansas City on November 5 to attend a conference 
at which were represented members of the Southwestern Millers’ Association and 
certain marine insurance underwriters. 
A. 0. Larson reports that the November examinations made in the lab- 
oratory by C. K. Fisher, and in the field ana warehouses by himself, indi- 
cate a very heavy percentage of infested lots of beans grown in California 
this year. Mr, Larson writes, "Our investigations at the farms, both in the 
North and the South, emphasize the necessity for a concerted effort to eradi- 
cate bean weevils. It appears that the marketing conditions during the last 
winter and spring had much to do with the abundance or lack of weevils in 
the new crop." It algo appears that while weevils are more generally pres= 
ent than in previous years in certain sections where they were bad last 
year, they were almost completely exterminated this year by cooperative ef- 
forts directed by Mr. Larson. 
Perez Simmons reports that recently he and G. W. Ellington discov 
ered that the Angoumois 8rain-moth larvae sometimes leave the grain and Spin 
cocoons in the ground. This is a new fact that appears never before to have 
been recorded, 
Karly in December, at the request of the Chamber of Gommerce of Gal- 
WereOm Tox Dr. ep. Cotton visited the ports of Galveston and Houston Ce 
to inspect docks, warehouses, and steamships, concerned in the exporting of . (. 
flour. Severe losses/sustained by flour shippers during the last Season, 
and every effort is being made to locate the Source of infestation and 
remedy the trouble, 
It is with pleasure that the Division of Stored-product Insects an- 
mnounces that the Dried Fruit Association of California has promised another 
thousand-dollar contribution toward the dried fruit insect work in California, 
