Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-12-29
HURT CLOVER and ALFALFA
Two Hundred Different Kinds
. of Bugs Prey Upon These
Valuable Hay Crops.
By PROFESSOR T. W. FOLSOM,
Illinois College Of Agriculture.

insects eat lot of our clover every
year when we don't know it. We have
more than two hundred different kinds
of insects in the clover field
Not all of them feed on the plant by
any means. though more than half OF
them do: The rest have various other
occupations, for the species that at
tack the plant are often destroyed by
other insects.
hundred different kinds of insects
eat the leaves or suck the sap from
the plant, yet comparatively few of
these are numerous enough to injure
the plant appreciably, for red clover IL
such a vigorous plant that it easily
sustains and repairs a large amount Of
injury.
In fact, up to a certain point, clover
is injured by leaf eating insects no
more than a fruit tree is injured by
pruning. Beyond that point, however,
insects make drain on the plants
If we could exclude all of the insects
there would result considerable in
crease in the hay crop; and could We
exclude all the insects except those
that pollenize the clover we should I'M
doubtedly get an immense increase in
the yield of seed.
NO part of the plant is exempt from
attack. The roots are eaten by the
root borer and other grubs and sucked
OF their sap by the mealy bug.
The stem is followed out by the
stem borer: the leaves and stems are
pierced by many sucking insects and
devoured by a great variety of caterpil-
lars, beetles and grasshoppers
Glover heads aIao aofo,, 1,x,
erpillars, beetles and grasshoppers
great majority of clover-feedine
insects are not restricted to the clover.
but have other plant foods. OF the
pests the seed nudge and the seed cat
erpillar are confined to clover, SO far
as known; the seed chalcid occurs on
alfalfa as well as clover.
The root borer has been reared from
peas, and the hayworm moth from
grape leaves from a vineyard,
The leaf weevil eats clover, alfalfa.
timothy and beans and the clover louise
has a long and varied list Of food
plants.
Here, where alfalfa has been re-
Gently introduced, it's insects are es-
sentially those of clover, though Of
the seven clover pests only the seed
cnalcid. the leaf weevil and the root
borer have as yet been recorded from
alfalfa
refer especially to these insects as
they occur on red clover, unless some
other plant is specified.
Here is the clover Leaf weevil. You
may have seen it this spring. 1t was
introduced from Europe
In the latter part of March the first
snjury is seen in the form of little
round holes in the clover leaves. II
You look on the ground under the rub
Dish you will find little green grubs
In the daytime they rest on the
ground, curled head to tail, but at
night they crawl to the plant and do
the damage.
In June these grubs turn into beetles
such as this. These beetles you can
find any day during the summer. They
do even more damage than the grubs
stripping the leaves and sometimes
eating the plant down, to the ground.
Late in the year they lay eggs.
These hatch and the young grubs hi
bernate. Many Of them are killed by
the cold but plenty survive.
In moist weather there comes fun
gus disease which sweeps them off like,
magic. If. however, the grubs are pres,f
emit in alarming numbers in the spriH n
the thing to do is to cut your cloHH
early. or to pasture it a little or clf&
it back in May or early June.