NEW TOBACCO PEST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18193, 14 September 1933, Page 10

NEW TOBACCO PEST

j MOTH’S RAVAGES ALARM IN THE TRADE A now tobacco pest in the. United Kingdom has recently caused serious alarm in the trade, as its ravages, have i inflicted lessee of nearly EIOG,COG in 12 months. It is the Ephestiu Elutellu, or Cacao moth, brownish grey in eolor and I scarcely half an inch across when its wings are extended. Thu inutli was first seen living about the London warehouses in 1929, and the 1 results of an iuqttiry by .Mr. 11. 11. S._ I Bovingdon, of tlie Imperial College ol Science, have just been published by the Empire Marketing Board as a '‘Report on the Infestation of Cured Tobacco in London by the Cacao Moth. The next inquiry has been made possible by the generosity of the Southern Rhodesian Government, which first shared the cost with the Empire Marketing Board. Hie board was subsequently assisted by the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great 1 Britain and Ireland and other firms. | Experiments . have proved that ■ the moths have aii overwhelming preference for bright-lcuf, kiln-cured tobacco, which helps to explain the suddenness and severity of the outbreak in London in 1929, when there were in bond enormous stocks of Rhodesian bright tobacco. The potential sources of Ephestiu are many. Apart from Southern Rhodesia, JSiyasalaml and South Africa, the pest has spread over Eastern Europe, and in 1930 appeared in America. I The problem of preventing the tobacco from being attacked in transit seems insoluble if the bales are damaged, but. bales wrapped in tarred brown paper, covered with a fine-meshed hessian (the moth cannot lay its eggs through a mesh 1-lOOin. wide) have proved immune from attack when untorn. The reconditioning of tobacco by a modern machine will destroy all stages in the life of the moth, Control can also lie exercised by i vacuum fumigation with ethylene oxide, 'or by the application of low tempera--1 tures, but much remains to lie done to complete the study of the life history ;aml habits of Epheslia Elutellu, in 'tobacco warehouses. It is suggested that there must he closer co-operation yol between entomologists, merchants, and J manufacturers to make an effective control. •