New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-09-10
Make War Upon the Insects.

Make War Upon the Insects.
q It is neither necessary nor advisable
to wait for the opening Of spring or
warm weather to make war upon the
various species of insects infesting gar
dens and orchard or farm crops. Some
kinds are of course hidden away in the
earth, where they will remain until the
warm weather calls them forth, but
there are others which can be more
easily destroyed now than later in the
season. Conspicuous among these are
several which infest the apple orchard.
The eggs of the American tent cater
pillar can at this season be found in
small compact masses, surrounding
the small twigs of the trees, and may
be readily removed by hand, or the
twigs cut off and burned. The eggs
are very minute and glued together in
masses of several hundred, each one of
which, if allowed to remain upon the
tree and hatch, will produce vora-
cious worn, capable of eating many
full-grown apple leaves in the summer.
OF course, trees denuded of their foli-
age by these worms cannot grow or
produce crop of fruit. Another pest
of the apple tree, known as the leaf
crumpler" (Phvcita nebulo). is also
made conspicuous in winter by its habit
of folding up leaf or two in the fall
and hiding within during the cold
weather. These dried dead leaves are
securely fastened to the :wigs of the
trees and may be readily seen during
winter, at which time they should be
gathered anil burned with their con-
tents. thereby checking the increase Ut
this injurious insect. In some few To-
calities the bag or basket worm is in
furious to apple and other trees. Their
long cocoons may be seen hanging on
the tree during winter, and, of course,
may be easily gathered and burned:
There are also cOcOOns of various
other kinds of noxious insects to be
found at this season attached to the
bark, branches and twjgs of trees,
shrubs, old fences. and the sides of
buildings, all of which should be gath
cred before the warm weather sets the
imprisoned moth or butterfly free.
The chrysalids of the now common
white cabbage butterfly can usually be
found attached to board fences, or the
sides of buildings near the garden or
cabbage patch, and it is much less
trouble to gather these and destroy
them than to take the butterfly on the
wing, or destroy the caterpillars when
buried inside of head of cabbage.
The apple tree-borer (Saperda ca,sditla)
attacks the stems of the trees near the
surface of the ground, and early in the
spring is the best time to search for
the grubs or pupas with sharp knife
or small gouge and kill every one that
is found. If the search is deferred
until after the trees come into bloom,
many Of the winged insects will have
escaped and commenced depositing
eggs upon the bark Of the same or
other trees; consequently whatever is
to be done toward checking the in
crease of this pest had better be done
now than later in the season. While
looking for borers in the stems of apple
trees, It is we'll to take look among
the larger branches, because there is
another and quite different kind of
borer which attacks these as we'll as
the stems of trees. Their presence in
the tree can usually be detected by
dead patches of bark, and when these
are cut out the borers will be found un-
derneath or in the live bark near by.
II the small twigs are dead or appear
to be withered, they should be cut off
and examined closely, because there is
q "twig borer'' (Amphiceras bicau-
1at4s) which is often very destructive
to apple orchards, boring out the CEN
ter of young shoots of the previous sea-
sons growth. These little beetles are
less than half inch long and not more
than one-sixteenth in diameter, but
they are large enough to do considera-
bic damage to an orchard when they
are plentiful.
There are also currant and raspber-
ry borers, which may be sought for in
the dead stems of these plants, which
should be cut out and burned with
their contents. 1t is great mistake
to either wait until summer before at
tempting to destroy noxious insects, or
to throw the brushwood and trimmings
from trees, vines and other plants into
heaps in some out-of-the-way place and
leave them there to decay. All such
refuse should be burned up as soon as
possible after it is removed from the
plants. and If the wood is too green to
burn freely, add enough dry material
10 insure the combustion of the whole.
Vast numbers of noxious insects can
be destroyed in this manner, the pres
ence of which may or may not be
known to the gardener or farmer who
performs the operation. All the old
dead weeds, grass and similar rubbish
which may have accumulated in fence
corners or elsewhere should be careful
~ gathered up before warm weather
comes on, and set on fire; for it is in
just such places that the chinch-bug,
Colorado beetle, squash-bug and
Southern cabbage-bug hide away in
vast numbers in the fall, and remain
during the winter; and the sooner they
are disturbed in spring and exposed to
their natural enemies the better. Many
may also be gathered with the rubbish
and burned.
A few hours, or even days, devoted
to the search for insects and the clean
ing up of rubbish will be time we'll
spent; and if all farmers would do so,
insect pests might become less numer-
Gus than at present. The increase of
noxi0us insects is not caused merely by
the destruction of their natural enc
mics, or by the clearing up Of the coun-
try. but is due in great part to the in-
difference of the farmer and gardener
in taking the simplest precautionary
measures to prevent it. The grain
weevil. which is at this moment in
creasing with great rapidity in most of
the Northern States, is q foreign insect
imported only few years since, and it
bids fair to do far more damage here
than it ever did in it's native country;
simply because our farmers will not
spend the time necessary to keep it in
check, az is donein Europe. The same
may be said of the pea weevil. Hessian
fly, cabbage worm and other European
insects which have of late years ap-