Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-12-15
Injurious Insects and Their
T-An&AA ~

view of the great iHiurs done by insects
each year in our county, it would hav'
been well could all of your farmers haY'
heard the address
:, The Prof said that in state of natur'
|, the balance between insects and vegetation
was maintained by natural laws thai
W enever any great increase Of insect lif'
) occurred they destroyed the particular
vegetation upon which they lived, anC
then necessarily must perish, giving thu
vegetation chance to recover its accns
toned luxuriance but the farmer coult
not be party to this kind of an a range
ment as he wanted his crops every year
these crops making the food for the insect,
plentiful. they Increased in numbers apc
it became necessary for the farmer To fgb
these insects il he would secure his crops
Sometimes insects that are not very
Injurious in their natural state, become 81
when different conditions are presented
the Colorado potato beetle being a case il
point Ia its native habitant II was Kept il
check by a lack of food, as the Dative plan
il fed upon-a plant OF the same genus as
the potato-was not abundant and when
it had consumed all of this plant, it mus
necessarily perish; but as civilization ex
tended, and farms we're opened up into it
territory. and potatoes were planted, anC
found plenty of food ready for its use-ii
increased greatly in numbers and began ltd
eastward journey, and now has spread
over all the eastern part of the continent
and has become the great pest it is
Another case cited was in one of our newly
acquired possession, the Hawaiian Islands
q worm there that fed upon plant of the
same order as the purslane, Tor "pussly" as
it is commonly called here), was not at all
plentiful, as the plant it fed upon was not
common, but upon the introduction OF
some purslane seeds from this country, and
the plant became plentiful, the worm
j increased to enormous numbers, until they
nearly destroyed the purslane. and then
necessarily they must perish, giving the
purslane chance to recover again, and so
the change goes on every three or four
years.
The Prof described the life cycle of some
4 of the insects, among others the melon
louise, saying that its fecundity was such
that under favorable conditions the progeny
of single pair would in a single year
amount to millions, that they were wingless
SO long as food was plentiful, but when
| there became SO many on one plant that
1
| them so that they could migrate to find
| fresh food.
Insects, he said, may be divided into
| two classes: "leafeaters" and suckers. -
and what will destroy one class will not
generally affect the other. so it is necessary
| to know which insecticide to use for their
destruction. OF the leafeaters" the
potato beetle is familiar instance, and its
destruction is comparatively easy by the
application of arsenic in some of its forms
to the leaf. the insect in eating the
leaf also eats the arsenis, and the arsenic
does the rest. Suckers do not eat the
leaf, but are provided with bill or sucker
with which they puncture the leaf or plant
and suck the juice or sap from it to the
| injury of the plant, and to secure its
destruction a different method must be
adopted. We can all of US remember when
boys blowing soap bubbles, how that with
plenty of soap in the water we could blow
very large bubble that would be covered
with very thin film of soap, and we can
adopt this same means for destroying the
soft " sucking" insects; if we make strong
emulsion of soap and with a pump with a
| fine spray er on it, spray the plants on
which the insects are, so as to entirely
cover them with the water, when the
water dries off, there is left upon the insect
thin film of soap, and as the insect
breathes thorough the pores of its body,
this film of soap stops the pores and causes
the death of the insect. Aud if to this
en- ulsion we add kerosene oil, which is
very penetrating, any particle of the oil
touching the insect penetrates it, and
assists in it's destructiOn;thes soft, sucking
insects live and feed upon the under sides
of the leaves of the plants, so that it is
somewhat difficult to reach them, but with
bent tube to the sprayer, it can be done
There is another class of sucking insects,
the scale insect, or those that have scale or
hard shell upon them this scale resists the
action of the soap so that to destroy these
it is necessary to add rosin to the spray; the
rosin causes the shell to shrink, thus en-
abling the coal oil to get under the scale
and reach the vital spot.
The Prof said that if we would now
examine the twigs of our apple and other
fruit trees, we would probably find upon
them small dark spots, which were the
eggs of the apple tree louise, and that to
destroy these they should be sprayed any
time before the buds started he also said
the middle of June was the time when
most of the insects were Matched out, and
that with heat and favorable weather at
| that time they would hatch in myriads,
but sudden drop in the thermometer at
that time, of say 20 degrees, would destroy
many of them.
He said that care must be exercised in
making the different sprays. and that he
| would be pleased to send the formulas for
mixing them to any one addressing him at
the State Experiment Station, New Bruins
wick, N. j.
| He said that he preferred the arsenite
of lead to Paris Green or other forms of
arsenic, for the destruction of the leaf
eating insects
In answer to question concerning the
cabbage worm, he said the reason for the
great increase in the number Of cabbage
worms in this section, was that the Southern
cabbage worm, which has been making its
way up the coast for some time.has reached
here; this worm may be distinguished
from the old cabbage worm by being a
loOrer," as it has feet only at the ends Of
its body; in crawling it forms loop the
best way yet known for destroying the
cabbage worm is by blowing powdered
quick lime upon it; blow the lime upon the
sides of the plant and under the leaves.
In answer to a question concerning the
bf-sulphide of carbon treatment for the
destruction of the melon louise, he thought
it was perhaps the hest of all for the pur-
pose.
In answer to a question concerning the
fly or weevil so common in wheat this
year, he said there was no known proven
tatiVe, that the best way probably, would
be to thrash the wheat from the field, and
subject the grain for two days TO the BIZ
sulphate of carbon treatment in a tight
bin, afterward keeping the wheat well
aired to prevent heating. W.
"A warm wave is said to be near.
Whence went that DeVoe blizzard?
The thermometer registered 100 above
zero Wednesday morning.
Carleton P. Stokes will open his seed
store. No. is Cooper street, early next
week.
Prosecution Stars loss in the destruc-
ton of his barn by fire on Wednesday
morning of last week was $1,000; insur-
ance, $500
Acting Governor Watkins and Gov
ernor-elect Voorhees,. spent last Sunday
with the boys of the Fourth Regiment at
Greenyille, s. G.
There will be shooting match open
to all, and wheeling contest at Mt. Royal
on the afternoon of Christmas Day Mon
day, for thirty five pound turkey.
Bicycle Agent Wilson has the most
complete stock of skates in the city dis