The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-09-06
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, D. @.
IMMIGRANT BUGS.

pers this year. The fall army worm
and the cotton boil weevil are trouble
some in the south. The gypsy moth is
teprorizing a twentyfive-mile area in
New Jersey. The European corn
borer is holding it's own against ex-
termination in New England. And
these are only five of the 5000 or
more bugs listed in the bureau of
entomology's rogue gallery of unde-
sirable insects in the United States
About 1000 of these are actively de-
struetive to the extent of one billion
dollars year
Our insect troubles would be far
/ less if new and unwelcome bugs We're
not so often Introduced to our farms
and orchards. Only the other day a
few satin moths were discovered on
trees in New England by government
! bugologists. If these relatives of the
gypsy moth have not already got a
firm start, unknown to the farmers OF
/ the region. and if prompt action is
taken, they may be eXterminated be-
fore they have become a pest.
| In their native country these insects
would be preyed upon by their natural
! enemies, but in foreign habitat there
1 is often no such bar to their progress.
Consequently, they multiply so swiftly
| that an insect scarcely considered a
tpest in its own country often becomes
a veritables scourge.
| The disaster which these destructive
| insects bring seems all the more I'M
| fortunate because with care it might
! usually have been prevented.
Up to a few years ago, a destructive
worm could slip into a United States
port without having his history or
/ ropean corn borer came to Massa-
! chusetts, it is believed, in shipments
/ of infected broom corn from Italy or
Australia. For several years before
| the war the borers must have been
| stealing into this country. But not
| until 1917 were they discovered, and
since then all the efforts of farmers
and entomologists have been neces-
| sary merely to keep the pests from
| spreading.
| y A japanese Pest.
The japanese be tie. not serious
pest in Japan, slipped into the United
| States in the soil around iris plants.
| The beetle has strong wings, which
carry it long distances, and then, too,
| it is apt to light on clothing or We
hicles where it may travel many miles.
/ In such ways as these the first few
! specimens in this country spread over
| New Jersey until quarantine had to
| be ordered, forbidding the shipment
of corn from the infested districts
without inspection by Governme nt
agents. In spite of the quarantine
and intensive warfare against them,
! the beetles flourished, so that this
spring the quarantine had to be re-
vised to include all kinds of farm, gar
| den, and orchard products. How i'm
1 migrant bugs increased may be
| imagined from the statement that
four years ago, when the danger was
| first suspected, only a dozen Japanese
| beetles could be found by scientists.
Now, boys in New Jersey hunt beetles,
| and some collect as many as 10000 in
a day, picking them by hand.
| The gypsy moth, another undesir-
! able resident, was openly brought
from France in 1859 by a well-mean-
| ing scientist who was studying insects.
/ He later lamented that a few of his
specimens had disappeared. Twenty
years after. however. their descend
ants turned up in large tribes in New
| England, where they have been pros
pering and branching out into new
areas ever since.
New Restrictions.
Only since 1912 have We had re-
strictions against bringing insects into
the United States. Now there are over
20 quarantine regulations affecting
foreign countries. Some of these pro-
hibit importation of certain products
likely to be infested, while others re-
quire inspection of stated imports.
For instance. last year a regulation
| was put into effect requiring that a
| foreign shipper must obtain a per-
NIT before he can send nursery stock
I to this country. The stock-whether
seeds, shrubs fruit pits. or any other
kind-must be inspected by officials
in the country from which they come
! or by port inspection officials of the
Department of Agriculture over here.
If a shipment is found to be infested
| with destructive insects, it is either re-
turned to the sender or burned.
Another regulation, effective since
| this spring, prohibits importation OF
/ broom corn without a permit and in
spection. and still another makes it
impossible to bring certain fruits
across the Mexican border. Every
day.Npeople unacquGinted with the in
sect immigration ruies, try to bring
alligator pears mangoes, guavas, or
plums across the border, only to have
them confiscated because of the dan
ger of introducing the Mexican fruit
fly.
The Mexican border offers one of
the easiest ways for an insect to inn
migrate into the United States. The
cotton boil weevil crossed the Rio
Grande in Texas, presumably by fly
ing. That was in 1892. Now the
boil weevil has spread to the Atlantic
coast, down into Florida, and practi-
cally as far north as the cotton belt
extends The boil weevil is known to
nave 80 enemies out IN InlS country
natural destruction does not begin to
keep pace with the advance of the
weevil.
Many people confound the boil
weevil with the pink boil worm OF
cotton, another immigrant from Mex
leo The pink boil worm Travelled
first from India to Egypt. From
there it spread to Mexico in some
Egyptian cotton, and now it is one
of the worst pests of the Texas and
Louisiana cottn fields. The worm was
discovered in this country three years
| ago, but the two states affected have
been guaranteed only a month. The
tnew order rules that cotton cannot be
moved out of the states without in
spection.
+. Interstate Barriers.
I There are a number of other state
| quarantines similar to this, which are
/ cd nrnd Nth rarlr.ransa. Of rora.rant.