The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-09-02
QUEER TOBACCO MOTHS.
They Feed Flowers Like Humming
Birds-Damage That They Do.
go, papa, see the pretty humminp

They Feed on Flowers Like Humming
Birds-Damage That They Do.
so, papa, see the pretty humming
bird.'
The object at which the child pointed
was poised above big white flower on
rapidly agitated wings, robbing the
blossom of nectar with it's long beak.
THAT is not humming bird, pet, "
said the gentleman, who sat on the
porch in the gathering dusk of evening
1T is hornblower moth. Once upon
a time it was a big green caterpillar"
| "a caterpillar, papa?
Eyes, dearie. That insect which looks
so like humming bird as you say, is
an enemy of my own, because it de-
stroys tobacco. Perhaps I would not
have had to pay so much for this cigar
| am smoking if there were no such
moths in existence"
But the moth does not eat tobacco,
papa"
mo, my dear, but II lays eggs that
match out into caterpillars and the
caterpillars feed on the,tobacco leaves
| There are plenty of them over in Mary
land and Virginia and the planters
have to fight them constantly. The
moth deposits its eggs on the leaves
and the newborn worms eat holes
through them, which render them use
less for making cigars. When they are
full grown they are about three inches
long. They are bright green with
small red heads and are very fat and
unpleasant"
get big?"
80, they keep on eating as long as
they are growing, gobbling up whole
leaves and plants and after shedding
their skins a few times they burrow
into the groHnd and stay there quite
torpid for awhile. Then they come out
of the earth in the shape of great
moths, such as the one you saw mo-
ment ago. After that they do not care
to feed upon Tobacco o leaves any more
but they live on the juices of flowers,
particu larly upon those of the honey
suckle and plant called the
jamestown weed They extract the
honey from the blossoms by means of
a flexible tongue five or six inches in
length. When they are not feeding
the tongue is coiled up like a watch
spring under the head. Pretty soon
they lay their eggs on the tobacco
leaves and then die"
"But what do they do to kill them?"
"a favorite way Of the planters over
in Maryland is to plant the jamestown
weeds in the tobacco fields and put in
each flower a little black arsenic or
other poison. Then the moths come
along, feed on the poisoned honey of
the blossoms and die. Men go through
the field, also and kill the caterpillars
by pinching off their heads. If such
measures We're not taken the insects
would destroy the tobacco crops. For
| tunately nature has provided certain
enemies that destroy tobacco worms
There is kind of fly, very small, which
punches holes in the bodies of the cater
pillars and lays its eggs in them. Little
worms are Matched from these eggs and
feed upon the caterpillars. finally spin
ming minute cocoons. Sometimes as
many as hundred of these cocoons are
IOuHu dIldclleu W d Single caterpillar.
Planters who know what they are about
never kill the caterpillars which they
find infested with these parasites, but
leave them to spread the trouble among
their kind. 1t is curious fact that the
fly parasites have other parasites that
feed upon themselves, laying their eggs
in the cocoons. Flocks of young tur-
keys are often let loose in the tobacco
field in order that they may eat the cat
erpillars, and the planters pay the chill
dren SO much for every moth they kill
by striking them with pieces of shingle
as they are lowering over flowers in the
twilight which is their time for going
abroad. Hornets and wasps also eat the
caterpillars and SO are friends of the
| farmers "-Washington Star