Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1892-12-31

Machinery, and Ruins Much Flour
All Efforts to 6ss Rid Of It Have
Failed.
saa Francisco CALL
A plague is upon US.
Tho terrible ephestia kuhniella
(Zeller) is spreading millions of
darkeniug wings, and coming like the
locusts came by the Nile. They
started from Eastern Europe several
years ego. and, advancing like the
cholera, and by similar means. have
now reached the Pacific Coaat.
They are stopping whirring -four
mills. and are in our daily bread, our
morning gems. pancakes and mush
aud our evening pies and sweet cakes
There is no joke about it. Tho
Mediterranean moth is really doing
these things.
1t has just gained fair foothold
here, and, as it rapidly spreads, it 10
proving . very expensive, annoying
and disagreeable insect pest.
The annoy ance promises to increase
rapidly, and . determined warfare will
soon be waged against it generally
throughout the Stata.
The flour-moth had not been heard
of here until two or three years ago,
when it appeared in a few mile in
this city. and it has been but few
months since it began to attract gen.
ersl attention among tho millers, as
it gradually spread from mill to mill,
but it has already cost them thousa nds
OF dollars. and they have just become
thoroughly wakened to an alarmed
inquiry about the pest and how to
fight it.
1t seems strange that noiseless little
moth less than an inch long and so
light it cannot Withstand a hre ath
should stop the steam driven shafts of
u great Aousing>mili from turning, but
it does.
1t Goes more than that, too. 1t
ruins fresh -four and meal nv the
barrel, and it makes the house wife
turn up her nose in disgust while she
is getting breakfast aud then 60 back
to the groceryman with plant.
1t makes the groocryman com.
plain to the miller, aud along the
line from tho miller to the breakfast.
table there is a turning up of noses
u loss of good flour and oatmeal and
buckwheat and general woA derinR
what is the matter.
People may now understand it all
and lay the blame to Providence or
foreign immigration, and not on the
eroceryman or the jolly and dusty but
very much worried miller.
The new pest is a small, dark, slug.
g'sh moth that does not harm when
it has wings, but it gets in its work
in the stages Of metamorphosis be-
tween the hatoi'ing of the eggs and
the bursting of tho cocoon which
yields to the world tho full grown
moth.
It does not fly about the world
generally. floating into houses and
l'e hting on flowers and fences.
1t sucks to mills and -four ware
houses aud may rarely be found else
whrre. 1t does not fly from one mill
to another either.
When it gets into mill it is carried
there either As All egg. grub OF moth,
and when il gets there no human
power can get the pest ersdicated
from that mill.
The female seeks warm corners
usually for the deposit of her eggs
She has a great liking for machinery,
which is made warm by friction, and
especially for the elevstors-those
long boxes, few inches square, in
which cups run on belts aud carry
grain and -four from Acor to floor.
Another favorite place is the out.
side of sacks Of -four.
The eggs are very small and white.
and they hatch into little Larvae from
one.eighth to one. sixteenth of an inch
long.
These grubs grow during period
Of six weeks into ugly little caterpil-
lars less than an inch long. During
all this time the larvae crawl about a
little space feeding on the flour, or,
ii it is on Hour sack they find them
selves, they at once hurrow inside and
slowly explore the interior.
These larvae would not be so much
Of pest to the millers themselves if
it were not for . strange popularity
they have.
Now every other caterpillar which
is destined to die that winged thing
NAV live attends strictlv IN bio h,s;