Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-10-06
HUMBLE FRIENDS OF HUMANITY.
How Bugs and Insects War on Enemies
of the Vegetable Kingdom and 9th
er,uisa Serve Man.

For cold ferocity there is nothing
that creeps, flies or craWlS that can
compare with the tiger beetle. He
is cannibalistic, and is worth his
weight in gold several times over to
any man who eats vegetables. He Is
an assassin and murderer who gop-
bles his victims when they are small
and sucks them dry of their juices
when they are too large to swallow
in sections.
He will clean out a colony Of plant
lice in minutes. Plant lice are enc
mics of the vegetable eater and any
thing that will destroy them is al
friend. Thus it is that among the
ranks of the bugs themselves there
are enemies that help to reduce their
numbers.
This ferocious bug is one Of the
friends of humanity. Without him
and others like him the plant lice
and the moths and flies Of various
kinds would make the fields and
lawns look as though they had been
sprayed with burning gasoline.
With the ambush beetle" and sol
uer bug" and the "robber ny ne
rambles here and there in the gar
dens literally seeking whom he may
devour.
1t took America over century
to get an understanding of the fact
that there are some bugs, snakes and
birds that ought not to be killed. Or
astrological societies wrestled with
state legislatures for quarter Of a
century before they were able to get
any laws passed that might limit the
slaughter of song birds. We have
never got far enough along as yet to
start in protecting the snakes and the
tiger bugs. So far they have no
friends who would dare to get up
and make a plea for the soldier
bug" or the tiger beetle"
Bumblebees are the sworn enemies
of the summer urchin. There is
nothing more exciting than whip
ping out" a bumblebee's nest. This
same warlike grumbling roarer who
is a failure as a honey-maker, is the
one flying thing that the farmer could
not afford to have exterminated. He
keeps the red clover in existence.
Without him the red fields would
have to go out of existence in year
They are a part of that vast swarm
of flying things that are little friends
of the race. At one end of the list Is
the owl, who wars increasingly on the
field mice and other furry things that
go nibbling through the corn cribs,
wheat stacks and granaries. He can
clean out a colony Of field mice as
fast as the tiger beetle will go through
a settlement of plant lice. His hab-
it's are not nice and his voice is not
very musical, but as a killer of furry
pests he has no equal.
Sitting on a stump Of a dead tree
in the moonlight or on the top of
a fence stake about dusk, those yell
low eyes of his miss nothing that
moves for so feet on either side Of
him. When a tiny eye shines among
the grass, or a dark spot moves
across a corn row there is no noise.
Just a silent drop of big, yellow eyes
and long talons on that dark spot
that squeaks once or maybe twice.
Boys dig worms to use as fishbait.
This sluggish angle worm is natures
own plow. At times the soil Is fairly
alive with these elongated wrigglers,
all busy plowing through the earth up
or down for IL or Is inches. They stir
up soil as nothing else can do. They
bring the deeper earth TO the sur
face and prevent the top layer from
being exhausted of its fertile parts.
Some scientist with a genius for fig
uring once spent year or so COM
putting the amount of soil that was
brought to the surface of a forty
1t amounted to many cubic yards,
and was so evenly distributed that
the men who till the fields would
never have noticed it at all. AS a
disk harrow you cannot beat the an
gle worm. Few farmers or garden
ers realize that the ordinary fish,
worm is one of their greatest help
erS.
Some states still pay a bounty for
the heads of the crow. All the argu-
mentS that can be brought forward
proving that they are destrOyers Of
field pests does but little good when
there are but few farmers in a state
Legislature Have they not seen the
black thief pull up row of green
corn shoots on wet morning along
in May? This single instance of Sc
riOuS robbery outweighs all the good
that he may do for the rest of the
year AS a matter of cold fact, he
helps the farmer and the gardener
fully as much as they are able to help
themselves.
A toad sits on the garden wall in
a sunny spot. He is apparently
asleep. A fly lights within six inches
of his nose and begins to preen him
self in the sun. Suddenly that fly is
there no longer. The toad settles a
little more comfortably on the walk
Every fly that lights in that locality
disappears. and yet the toad has not
moved out of his tracks. He doesn't
have to- so long as nature furnishes
him with an elastic tongue that will
flick a fly off the walk inches away
from the toad himself.-St.LOuis Post