The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1881-07-07
for the farlilrr.
THE GRAIN wEEvILs.

|
/ that which they 80 readily welcome. The clos
ing of European markets to American grain
| would certainly he great loss 10 our farmers,
but even this would not be so serious n matter
as the destruction of that retained for home use.
We are not saying this to unnecessarily alarm
farmers and dealers in grain, bnt the facts in re-
gard to the increase of grain weevilsina all parts
Of the country are too overwhelming to be passed
| over in silence
The greatest grain pest in the Northern States
| is the imported grain weevil, CdldHdrd grdRdrid.
just when or how it was introduced is now I'M
known, but it is only known within thepast few
| years that it has become sufficiently abundant
| TO attract any considerable attention It is
small snout beetle, belonging to the same family
rs the plum and apple cnreuio but instead of
attacking fruit, it breeds in, and and lives upon
stored grain, preferring wheat, although it will
not refuse oats, barley, sorghum; in fact, il is
a general grain pest II is about One-cighth of
an inch long and quite slender, with a snout
slightly bent downward, and a coarsely pune
tured and very long thorax, constituting nearly
One-half the length of the whole body. Its wing
covers are furrowed, and covered with very mi
mute punctures. The color is pitchy red, but
sometimes very black. This little beetle, both
in its perfect and grub state, 'levours wheat and
| other stored grain, and itspo wcrs of multiple
cation are great that single pair il left undis-
/ turbed, may produce more than 6,OOO descend
ants in a year. The female deposits her eggs
| upon the grain after it is placed in the barn
| granary, and these eggs soon hatch; the young
grubs bore into the grain, eating out the sub
| stance, and leaving nothing but the hull When
| once started in their work of destruction they
| continue it as long as there in a sound grain to
| feed upon, unless disturbed, and then hnn-
| dreds, and even millions will crawl away and
| hide in the cracks about the barn, or wherever
| a safe retreat can be found. OF course wheat OF
other grain infested by these beetles can be sent
to the mill and ground, but to think Of feeding
ont such product to animals. besides it is not
| a safe food.
| Flour made of beetle-infcsted grain is certainly
unhealthy, if not always not actually poisonous.
| The wing cases and shell of these grain weevils
contain the same medicinal properties as the can
tharides, or Spanish fly; and although in'grind-
| ing the grain, and passing the flour through the
boiling cloth, the larger part of these shells
| would 20 into the bran, still the smaller parti-
| cles must pass into the flour, and there become a
| dangerous element. Not long since correspOn-
| dent in Ohio sent us few beetles, saying that
| his wheat in the granary was alive with them,
| and as the specimens sent were badly crushed in
| the mails, we requested few more in order to he
more certain IN regard TO the the species. He
| responded with a large tin box, holding at least
pint, filled whit this European grain wccvil,
and in his note accompanying them, he said I
can send yOu bushel of the same kind, if You
want them" If one farmer could gather bush
ell Of these weevils in his barn. il is very certain
that there are more of the same kind elsewhere
in Ohio. In fact, it has been known for some
years. that this insect was on the increase in all
parts of the country, but very little has been
said about it, perhaps for fear of injuring the
sale of grain, or of the land where it was most
abundant.
In the Middle and Southern States, n closely
allied species known as the rice weevil (CdIdR-
drd Ory-d) }, abounds almost everywhere, attack
ing rice. wheat, oats, Indian corn, and even the
seeds of some of some of the wild grasses II diff
fers somewhat from the European grain weevil,
being of much darker color, and there are two
red spots on each wing cover. In the South il is
called the 'black weevi," to distinguish it from
red weevil, insect belonging to q differ
ent genus, which also attacks grain in the field
as well as when stored in granaries. This rice
weevil has now become common at the South
that keeping grain of almost any kind is becom-
ing very difficult These insects arc so small
that they readily find access to the grain, when
stored in ordinary granarles, matter how care
full the farmer may he in his attempts to keep |
them ont. If the grain is left in the bundles |
stacked i'll the field or stored in the barn, the |
weevils soon find it and commence their work of |
destruction, and when they have found n |
Judgment ON a farm, il becomes difficult mat |
ter TO get rid OF them.
Kiln drying will destroy both the grubs in the |
grain, as well as the eggs and beetles, but there |
are few farmers who can afford to do this, and |
heating grain TO a temperature required for de- |
stroying the weevils would be likely to destroy |
its vitality; consequently this process will only
answer for that which is TO be ground up or fed |
TO stock. Scattering dry lime among grain is |
said to be a good preventive, and if the grain |
is kept quite dry it would not he Injurious be-
cause by running the grain again through fan |
ming mill the lime could be readily removed. In |
cool climates there is less difficulty in keeping
out weevils, for if the grain is thresled early |
and stored in cool place, where it can be
thrown over OF moved from one hin TO another |
every three or four weeks the weevils will make /
but little progress. Grain to be kept for seed \
may be placed in tight barrels and sprinkled |
with benZine or some similar insectcide.
The rice and imported grain weeyils not |
the only kinds which infest grain, for there are
several species known under the common name
of ''red weevil." which not only attack wheat and
other kinds of grain, but infest bran, shorts and
meal, and Will even subsist grass seeds
The most abundant of these weevils, is the one
known to entOmologists SlrdRUs SHTiHdReRss,
so named by Linneus because it was supposed tn
be n native of Surinam, but il probably oTiginat-
ed in North America. 1t is minute, flatisli bee
tie of reddish color, and for many years has
been abundant in Pennsylvania, from which
State we have received il frequently from cores
pOndents. 1t is very troublesome pest, and
the most practical method of clearing building
of it is To remove everything of the grain and
seed kind and not the building for grana-
~ until the weevils are starved ont
Troublesome and destructive are the insects
named above, there is still another likely to
prove more disastrous to grain of nearly all kinds
and this is the European grain moth, OF it is
called in France, Angoumois grain moth, from
the province in which il first discovered
about 80 years ago. This insect is a small moth |
about the size of the common clothes moth The
laryR burrow into, and eat out the centre of the
infested grain. 1t appears to prefer Indian corn,
and it is now pretty well distributed the
country, but is more abundant in the Middle and
Southern States, than in the Northern. This
is one likely to destroy annually millions of dol
lars worth of corn and other grain, unless meas
ures adopted to cheek its increase, II at
taeks corn in the ear, when shelled and pnt
in storehouses; and the moth readily flies
from place TO place, its dissemination is rapid
and certain.
How best to destroy these pests, is a question
not readily answered. for while it may be an
easy matter for one farmer to rid his own place
of them, the carelessness or interference of
neighbor may render all his labor useless. 1t
must lie made compulsory upon every farmer and
dealer to destroy the weeyils and moths, before
any real progress can be made. Without laws
touching such matters, farmers will hurry their
weevil-infestcd grain to the mill or market, and
in this way distribute them. and cOntaminate
the sound grainof Others. That this is done every
year we know from the fact that weevil and
moth-infested grain is found not only in the seed
stores, but in the grain markets of our largest
cities. There are laws for the suppression of
crime, and Others looking towards preventing
the dissemination of contagious diseases, and ii
is time that laws should be passed to prevent
the further sale redistribution of infected grain
The State of Ohio has recently passed n strin-
gent law regulating the sale of adulterated hut
ter and cheese, but her farmers are permitted to
sell poisonous, weevil-infested wheat, without
even hint from the Legislature that there is
anything wrong IN sueh transactions. There is
far more danger of persons being poisoned by us
ing Ohio flour, Judging from the reports of the !
abundance of weevils in the wheat, than there is
from eating oleomargarine butter or cheese.
Just soon as the sale of insect-infested seeds
and grain is FORBIDDEN by law, the grower and
dealer Will discover the means of destroying the
pests. Weevil-infested peas and beans are open ,
ly, offered for sale in our markets and seed
stores and recently we received n quantity of
clover seed that was literally alive with the | I
larvs of the cloyer-seed midge, there being
enough in one pint of il to stock whole county
with this rapidly increasing and very destruc- '
tive pest.-Ner Ork SHR.
Stack The Wheat
BY the time this number reaches its readers |