The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-02-07
BUGS AND THEIR WORK.
DR.. Howard, the Entomologist, Rises
in Defence of Some Insects.

we'll as their uses in the great plan OF
creation. He believes that an insect
which eats our potatoes is only an enc
my because we want potatoes, too, and
that the insect has as much right tc
| the potatoes as we have. 1t is pressed
by common necessity of maintaining
| itself, and there is every evidence that
the potato was intended as much for
the insect as for humankind
MAN is but one of the forms of life
that are struggling for existence said
| DR.. Howard, and by virtue of his sur
passing intelligence attempts to domin-
ate all other species in nature. The
struggle of other forms of life to &C
commodate themselves to the condi-
tions brought about by his rapid de-
velopment is one of the most interest
ing subjects of study for biologists and
| considering whether insects are injuri-
| GUS or beneficial to man is one of its
most fascinating features. The popular
| conception is that they are wholly in
| furious. Everybody can observe the
damage they do to crops and their an
noyance to people and animals but
| there are a good many things to be said
in their favor that are known only to
| scientists. We can summarize their in
juries and benefits as follows:
They are injurious:
l. AS the destroyers of crops and
other valuable plant life.
g. AS destroyers of food, dwellings,
clothing, books, etc.
8. As injuring live stock and other
useful animals.
4. AS annoying mankind.
5. AS carriers of disease.
On the other hand they are benefi-
cial:
1, AS destroyers of injurious insects
2. AS destroyers of noxious plants.
3. AS pollenizers of plants.
4. AS scavengers.
5. AS makers of soil.
6. AS food for man, poultry, birds,
fishes, and as clothing and for use in
the arts
"One of the chief functions of insect
life is to keep down superabundant
vegetation" continued DR.. Howard.
almost every cultivated crop has
thousands upon thousands of insect
enemies A tabulation of the enemies
of the apple already recognized in this
country shows 2S1 species, of clover
eghty-tWo species, and of so new a
crop as the sugar beet seventy species.
The late Professor Riley estimated the
average annual damage to cultivated
crops by injurious insects in the Unit
ed States as $500, 100000. The loss from
the chinchbug alone during one year
was estimated at $60,O0O,O00, but the
money value of the crops harvested is
oil, few,
be otherwise that these estimates of
damage should be expressed in some
other measure than money value. The
damage done by insects to agriculture
has given rise to a new branch Of APP
piled science, known as economic
neomology, in which America leads the
world.
"There is hardly any produce of
mans ingenuity which is not damaged
or destroyed by insects; even metal is
not exempt since there are instances
of the destruction of lead pipes by in
sects larvae, and the perforation of the
metal Innings of water tanks by small
beetles.
"All species of animals have their in
sect parasites, which make their lives
a burden to themselves and trial and
loss to their owners. Some years ago
the editor of The Farmers Review es-
timated that the loss to the animals in
the Union stockyards at Chicago from
the attacks of a single insect the OK
bot fly, or OK MARBLE, for a period of six
months was $3,336,365.
There are few places on the habita-
BILE globe where man is not more or less
Nv, i,,en A IN
dividual not long ago wrote to the de-
partment of agriculture that he had
come over from the old country and
settled in New Jersey, but the mosqui-
toes bothered him SO that he moved to
northern New York. There, during a
certain portion of the year, the black
flies made life uncomfortable, whereupon
he moved to North Carolina, where the
red bugs, or jiggers, were so bad that !
he feared he would go crazy and in
that desperate condition he asked the
secretary of agriculture whether there
existed in the United States a locality !
where a sensitive individual like him
self could find peace from the attacks ,
of insects.
1T has been well demonstrated that |
insects are carriers of disease germs, |
and that is one of the most serious
phases of insect injury.
In the eternal warfare OF organism |
upon organism the insect does not es-
cape. There is not one species that is !
it's natural enemies in the form |
of other insects, and scientists have fire.
quently introduced one kind of bug to
destroy others that happen to be the
enemies of agriculture. The Hessian fly !
is no longer dreaded by wheat-growers
in certain states, because they know a |
parasite which will prevent it from
committing great damage. The intro
duction of insect enemies to destroy
injurious insects is an extremely COM
plicated matter, but it has come into
great prominence during the last ten
years, and l could give you large
number of instances where it has been
a practical success. One of the most