§ 112. Sir G. Foxasked the President of the Board of Trade how much utility furniture supplied to the public has been infested with lyctus powder-post beetles; whether this pest is on the increase; and what steps are taken to ensure that any furniture which is so infested is destroyed, before being supplied to the public.
§ Sir S. CrippsI am aware that there has been a number of cases in which the lyctus beetle has appeared in articles of utility furniture. It is not possible to say how many articles have been affected, but I hope and believe that the quantity will prove to be only a very small proportion of the total furniture produced. Research on methods of control of this pest—which, apart from its effects on the sapwoods of certain timbers, is innocuous—is in progress at the Forest Products Research Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. I am advised that treatment by insecticides for the prevention of attack has not yet proved sufficiently successful to recommend its general use, and that at present the only certain and practicable way to eliminate the pest is to prevent the use in manufacture of sapwood. I am therefore taking measures to that end. Until these measures became effective, it would not be possible to ensure that no piece of infected furniture ever reached the public, as the presence of this beetle is usually not apparent until some time after the infestation has started.