The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1902-03-01
1er ShiDmsat to South Africa y d
uoed % Crop Savers.
Twe.ev Thousand e The Insss1s
Dsin6 Hunted Fer ~ ChIIA1o0 ~.
oe West SteskbpaAos, Aass.,
Ter TAlo PuSDOo0, r.,


World. The little red-dotted beetles:
are being scooped up in great numbers.
The Berkshire farmers are beginning
to protest. The lady bug IL estimated
TO be worth any day ten times her
weight In gold.
She comes Of family which has .
good many black sheep In It, ~ black
sheep 60 in the insect world. but the
lady bug il . lady "for = that"
OF ill the myriad insects in the
world this little reddish beetle 10 The
most useful to man. IT. value 10 BE-
yond all price. It saves more crops
the universe over year after year than
any other agent.
IT. whole life IL . warfare against
other insects that destroy the farm
sr's substance.
French children long ago named
IL bette bon Dieu (the insect Of the
good God). and in English We have the
gentle and a6ectionste rhyme: .:
LADY bug. lady bug. ny away home"
The lady bug is found in every coun-
try on the globe, although the species
In some localities are moro useful than
those in other localities.
It has . round body only about one
eighth of an inch in diameter and In
unobtrusive both in looks and man.
nsr. IT. long suit is it, appetite. Il
10 always hungry. It feeds entirely
upon the eggs of other insects and
upon the insects themselves if they are
small enough TO be swallowed by .
specimen 20 diminutivs % the hdy bur
itself.
The lady bug lays . string Of tiny
yellow eggs. She II cunning enough
always to Icy these amid . colony of
plant lice. Al soon ~ the larvae
hatch out, looking like miniature alli-
gators, they begin to eat. and being
carnivorous they fall upon the tiny
insects around them. In the five OF
six weeks that they are growing up
they destroy . whole plant-lice SET
Element. Then they roll up a.
cocoons and hang suspended head
downward in nearly any available
nook. They came out Of tho shs1l
full-grown lady bugs and keep on
their carnivorous career.
Curiously enough, the lady bug IL.
self has few enemies. Ito only means
Of: defenss IL = pungent liquid which
Is not poisonous, il not really Of a
bad odor and probably frightens mons
of its hsphazard foss. When it ID
frightened it draws it, feet up close
under it, body and sticks tightly ia
the under side Of Leaf. Presently,
II nothing alarming happens, Il
spreads its small wings and Aiea
away, all the time watching sharply
out Of it, brilliant black eyes.
The lady bug really has two pair.
of wings. although it seldom geta
credit for them. The front pair fold
over and form part Of the hard shell
that incases It's body. The hind
wings are used for short flights.
Nearly every insect which Destroy
tho crops is the prey Of the lady bug
Many of these are the lady bugs
cousins, such - blister beetles
squash bugs, cabbage bugs, weevils
O0A A-O0AAA8 O0SsACos AOU4 OSetACD
beat beetles and cotton bugs. all Of
which belong to the coleoptera order
The lady bugs greatest service
perhaps, 10 in the devouring Of thu
deadly aphis. These plant lice. little
green insects no bigger than . tiny
pinhesd. are the most prolific Of in.
sects. They infest all plants and an
particularly injurious to cotton cropa
Too small and frau TO eat the leavss
they suck out tho juices.
But the lady bug pouncss upon the
plant lice. If it were not for this
warfare scarcely any small crop 81
any flowers could b grown.
In California . few year, ago q
particularly large lady bug wss In
troduced from Australia. 1t wa
found to be the only agent which
could cope with the sphis which
caused the eottony cushion scale on
grapes. In two years the work Of the
lady bug Melted . profit of $500, 900
to the state. It has now practically
exterminated his special seale insect.