EPHESTIA ELETELLA—The Chocolate Moth

The larvæ of this moth frequently cause serious damage to cocoa, flour, or biscuits when these are stored. Profe or Huxley proposes to guard against the ravages of the insect by the adoption of the following precautions— 1. Have no cocoa stored in any place in which biscuits are manufactured. 2. Lead up all biscuit puncheons as soon as they are full of the freshly-baked biscuit. 3. Coat puncheons with tar after they are leaded up, or at least work lime-wash well into the joints and crevices. 4. Line the bread-rooms of the ships with tin, so that if the Ephestia has got into a puncheon it may not infest the rest of the ship. 5. If other means fail, expose the woodwork of puncheons to a heat of 200° F. for two hours, or they might be destroyed by driving into the puncheon a stream of carbonic oxide, and afterwards exposing it well to the air. Weevils in biscuit have frequently been exterminated by this method, and there appears to be no reason why this treatment should not be equally efficacious for getting rid of the larvæ of the Ephestia Eletella .