Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-09-30
INSECTS FEED ON BOOKS.
How to Rid Libraries of the Book
Louise.

More books and manuscripts have
been destroyed by insects than by fire.
water and rats and mice combined
For many centuries librarians had
observed depredations due to insects
Withous knowing their precise cause
writes jacques Boyer in the Scientific
American. In 1921 Frisch of Berlin
found in crust of dry bread the larva
of an insect (probably anobrium),
which bored holes in books, manu-
scripts and paintings. In 1742 Pred
iger suggested methods of protecting
books from the ravages of insects, and
in 1854 the Gentlemans Magazine of
London recommended busting the
shelves and the fly leaves of books
with pepper, pulverized alum and other
Insecticides. These palatives proving
insufficient, the Gottingen Academy of
sciences twenty years later offered a
prize for the discovery of injurious spe-
cies and methods of destroying them
The subject has been tl'ornughly inves-
tigated by modern entomOlogists, but
no universal remedy has been discoV-
cred.
One of the most formidable of the in
sect pests is the bread borer (anobrium
WIlltll IL louHu Ill dll cli~
mates not only in libraries. but in rye
bread. whence it's specific name. The
beetle is One-twelfth inch long. downy
light brown and striped lengthwise.
The eggs are laid between the edges of
the leaves. in scratches in leather bind
ines. chinks due to imperfect pasting
of backs and fly leaves, etc. They
hatch in five or six days in summer and
the larva at once bore through the
bindings. following the lines of paste.
The worm is brOWniSh white. cylin-
drical, slightly arched and has thirteen
| segments. The head is brown, scaly
and armed with mandibles which "only
cast iron can resist" according to one
naturalist.
The worm bores long narrow tunnels
through paper. leather and wood, leav-
ing trail of sawdust mixed with white
excrement. Pupation occupies twenty
days and takes place in enlargmentS of
the tunnels very near the surface, so
that the perfect insects have to bore
| through only n thin shell. leaving the
large round holes so common in old
bindings. Pairing takes place in early
summer in the tunnels, which are not
abandoned until the supply of food
fails, when other quarters are sought.
Sometimes not a single worm or beetle
is found in a volume riddled with holes
a fact that has puzzled many a IL
| brarian.
Of the various methods that have
| been recommended for Kidding libraries
| of borers the only effective one consists
| in exposing the infested volumes to the
| vapor of carbon disulphide by putting
then in an air tight metal lined box
with a saucer of that liquid. Thrty-six
hours of this treatment suffices to kill
bellies, pupae, larvae and eggs. The
| unpleasant odor of the disulphide dis
appears after brief exposure to the air.
and the only objection to the use of
this substance is its inflammability and
the explosive character of its vapor
when mixed with air. Hence the fumi-
cation should be done in the daytime
in we'll ventilated room. and the box
should not be opened near a flame. On
the other hand, the process possesses
the merit of cheapnesS, as the diSul-
phide costs only cents pound and
an ounce sufficeS to fumigate n box of
seventy cubic feet capacity
The larva of the Dermestes has a pc
| culiar fondness for bindings of leather
and parchment In May or June the
females enter the library and lay their
egs. usually on the edges of books in
| contact with the wall AS soon as the
larvae are Matched they begin their
work of destruction. not making long
| regular tunnels like the borers. but 60
| ing in all directions and gnawing and
| disintegrating the bindings in an ex-
| traordinary manner. Sprinkling with
benZine and fumigation with carbon
disulphide have been recommended for
their destruction.