BIOLOGICAL METHODS

BIOLOGICAL METHODS



          This article is confined to the recognitionof the effects of biological activity during the processing storage or use of textile .The technique of microbiological work and the identification of bacteria fungi and insects is highly specialized and unsuitable for routine work in a textile laboratory.

INSECTS
      
          The major enemy to textile materials in this country is the moth grub in other countries certain beetle grubs cause much damage both to textile fibres and to starchy materials mites which are not ture insects cause damage to flour and may give rise to so called dermatitis in operatives.

 MOTHS

      

          Moths themselves gave atrophied mouth parts and cannot eat it is the grub that causes damage to textile materials. Tineola Bestselling the clothes moth produces a grub which forms a silky tunnel as it moves

about and spins a silky cocoon whin fully developed . Tina pellionella the fur moth produces a grab which builds round itself a case of silk covered with small bits of fibre which is dragged along by the grub as
it moves about .Tricopbage tapietella (the tapestry moth )produces a grub which makes neither tunnel nor case but burrows in th material lining the burrows with silk .The grubs live on keratin like bodies and only cat vegetable matter when there is nothing else to eat but cannot digest it .  The majority of moths seen flying even inside the house especially in the country are not clothes moths and their grubs do no harm to textiles.
      

         Certin chemicals such as naphthalene and paradichlorbenzene are distasteful to moths and are avoided by them in sufficient concentration (but a concentration which cannot be realized in textile ware houses) these

 bodies are faral to moths . in most instances such chemicals are not fatal tithe grubs . Infected material may be sterilized by steam or fumigation by mixtures of ethylene oxide and carbon monoxide in suitable cases.