The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-07
RUGS AND THEIR WORK.
L. II. Howard, the EntOmOIoGist,
Rises in Defense of Some Insects.


have their rights and privileges as well
as their uses in the great plan of crea-
ton. He believes that an insect which
eats our potatoes, is only an enemy be-
cause We want potatoes, too, and that the
insect has as much right to the potatoes
as we have. 1t is pressed by common ne
cessity of maintaining itself, and there is
every evidence that the potato was in
tended as much for the insect as for hu-
mankind.
Man is but one of the forms of life that
are struggling for existence" said DR..
Howard, land by virtue of his surpass-
ing Intelligence attempts to dominate all
| other species in nature. The struggle of
other forms of life to accommodate them
selves to the conditions brought about by
his rapid development is one of the most
interesting subjects of study for biolog-
lists, and considering whether insects are
| injurious or beneficial to man is one of its
| most fascinating features. The popular
conception is that they are wholly inJuri-
| Gus. Everybody can observe the damage
| they do to crops and their annoyance 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 injuries and benefits as
| follows;
They are injurious:
/. AS the destroyers of crops and other
valuable plant life.
2. AS destroyers of food, dwellings,
| clothing, books, etc.
8. As injuring live stock and other use
| full animals.
4. AS annoying mankind
5. As carriers of disease.
On the other hand they are beneficial:
l. AS destroyers of injurious insects.
2. AS destroyers of noxious plants.
-
A. AS scavengers.
5. AS makers of soil
6. AS food for man, poultry, birds,
| fishes, and as clothing and for use In the
| arts.
lone of the chief functions of insect life
is to keep down superintendent vegeta-
| tion," continued DIR. Howard. almost
every cultivated crop has thousands upon
| thousands of insect enemies. A tabulation
of the enemies of the apple already recog-
nized in this country shows 2S1 species, of
| clover eighty-two species and of so new
| crop as the sugar beet seventy species. The
| late Prof Riley estimated the average an
| nuaI damage to cultivated crops by inju-
rious insects in the United States as $780,
| 900 co., The loss from the chinchbug alone
! during one year was estimated at $60,0OO,-
| Co., but the money value of the crops har-
| vested is always so much greater than il
| would 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 new branch of applied science,
| known as economic entomology, in which
America leads the world.
There is hardly any product of mans
ingenuity which is not damaged or des-
| troyed by insects; even metal is not exempt,
| since there are instances of the destruction
| of lead pipes by insects larvae, and the
! perforation of the metal Innings of water
| tanks by small beetles
'tAH species of animals have their insect
| parasites which make their lives burden
| to themselves and trial and loss to their
| owners. Some years ago the editor of the
| Farmers Review estimated that the loss
to the animals in the Union stockyards at
! Chicago from the attacks of single in
| sect, the OK bot fly, or OK MARBLE, for a
! period of six months was So, 1896
troublesome Insects Everywhere.
There are few places on the habitabTe
globe where man Is not more or less an
! moved by insects. A susceptible individual
not long ago wrote to the department of
| agriculture that he had come over from
! the old country and settled in New Jer
| sey but the mosquitoes bothered him so
! that he moved to Northern New York.
| There, during a certain portion of the
/ BILE whereupon he moved 10 North Caro-
! lima, 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 locality
| where a sensitive individual like himself
could find peace from the attacks of IN
.sects
'It has been well demonstrated that
/ soe ara of disease and
/ that is one of the most serious phases of
! insect injury.
I'm the eternal warfare of organism
upon organism the insect does not es-
| cape. There is not one species that is
without it's natural enemies in the form
| of other insects, and scientists have fire.
auently introduced one kind of bug to
/ destroy others that happen to be the enc
mics of agriculture. The Hessian fly is
no longer dreaded by wheat growers in
! certain states because they know para
site which will prevent it from committing
great damage. The introduction of insect
enemies to destroy injurious insects Is an
extremely complicated matter, but 1t has
come into great prominence during the
last ten years, and I could give you
large number of instances where it has
been a practical success. One of the most
important was the importation by Albert
| Koebele of the Novius vedalia cardinalis
lady bird beetle, from Australia into Cal
ifornia, which has saved millions of dol
lars to the orange growers by destroying
the cottony cushion scale. This insect has
recently been sent 10 Portugal from Cali
fornia through my agency and has saved
many valuable orchards during the last
! year.
They Destroy Weeds.
insects have an important function in
! DESTROYING weeds and other noxious nlapts
| and It is safe TO say that the farmer de-
| rives great benefit from them in this re-
| spect, but the most important of the good
| Offices Of insects Is in cross fertilization,
which is of incalculable value in the pro-
| gressive developments of the great majori-
| ty to towering plants. and with some II is
! almost an essential of existence. An es-
| innate Of the number of insects which are
! engaged in the work of collecting and car
| rving pollen from one platt TO another
| would include whole families and almost
orders. and II we could imagine the race
of hower-visiting insects wiped out of ex-
| istence. the disastrous effect upon plant
I -.