Williams news., 1918-06-21
HOW ID CONTROL
 COLO. POTATO BEETLE

LULU. PUlAU BttlUk
 From contribution made to the News last year by Oscar C. Bartlett, Asst. State Entomolo- gist.
 Throughout the whole Unit ed States the worst insect enc my to the potato-grower is the Colorado potato beetle. It is another one of the good things that old Mexico has presented us, for it was first known in the wilds of the Rocky Mountain Highlands of that country, where it fed on common weeds of the potato plant family. It is safe to say that this pest may today be found almost every where the potato is grown in the United States or Southern Canada.
 For a time it's rapid increase and spread threatened the po- tato industry but it's invasion brought about the use of the Arsenical poisons. The poison principally used was Paris Green which proved so effect i've that where farmers under stand the proper use of poisons and apparatus to spray with, there is little to fear from it's attack.
 When full grown this beetle is dark yellow with black strips on the wing covers. It is close to one half inch long. It lives either in the ground or in places where potatoes are stor- ed. AS soon as the young plants appear in the spring the fe- males seek the potato fields and do considerable damage eating the young plants. They soon lay a mass of yellow eggs on the under side of the leaves Each female will lay as many as five hundred eggs in a month. The eggs hatch in a. bout a week and a horde of red dish colored larvae with black markings on them fairly devour the vines. When full grown they enter the ground and form smooth oval shells from which adult beetles will come again in about a week to lay more eggs. In the higher attitudes there is probably, but one gen. eration a year.
 Remedies
 For a few short rows of pota- toes in garden etc., the best; method to use to get rid of the Colorado potato beetle is to hand pick the insects. A pail or pan held under the vines sharply slapped with a small paddle will cause the beetles to fall into the pan when they can be destroyed by burning If hand picking is resorted to the idea should be to gather the first beetls that get on the young crop. If this is carefully done very few eggs will be laid and the resulting large num- Der of beetles which hatch from the eggs will never ap- pear. Where there are small patches of potatoes hand pick ing is a laborious process and the use of one of the small typesof sprayers is recommend ed, such as the bucket pump compressed air pump etc.; the .. bucket pump costs about six dollars properly equipped. Any sprayer of the smaller types should have three feet of hose, cut off, a three foot brass or iron extension rod with a fog nozzle or perhaps a side cy- clone nozzle to be attached at the end of the extension rod
 For small areas the poison may be put on dry by mixing it with about fifty times it's own weight of some substance like land plaster or slacked lime In this way it may be dus+ed on the plants while they are damp . with dew or rain, with a sitter made like a sieve or one of the improved dust guns.
 One to four acres may be easily sprayed with barrel pump or better still the double action friend pump, made by the Trend Manufacturing Com pany, Watsonville, California