Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1921-11-18
KEEPING THE BUGS
 OUT IS JOB OF THE STATE ELON0DOC|ST

10 malnCaln quarantine renee ol
 fine enough mesh to keep out of the
 State a bug or a collection of bugs
 no bigger than midges, is something
 of an undertaking. Yet, in sense,
 that is the task that perpetually con-
 fronts Don c. Mote, State Entomolo-
 gist for Arizona, and his staff of as
 sistants.
 In asking Mr. Mote how he goes
 about shooing them away, number
 of interesting facts were elicited.
 As all Arizonans know, the States
 two principal field crops are alfalfa and cotton, and each are menaced by
 very serious dangers from the out
 side. Arizona and California consti-
 ute the only cotton growing States in
 the United States free from cotton
 boil weevil.' The damage done in our
 Southern States by this insect is
 notorious; but bad as is the cotton
 boil weevil, an even worse pest is the
 pink boil worm, which found its way
 from India to Egypt and from Egypt
 to Old Mexico, and now has finally
 crossed the Rio Grande into parts of Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico. Naturally during Mexico's series of revolutions there was no chance ln that country to look after insect
 pests, and in the Laguna district, ly-
 ing to the south of Texas, the entire territory is overrun with the pink boil worm which, it is estimated, takes toll of from fifty to eighty percent of the entire crop.
 So much for the dangers on our eastern and southern borders. From the north and west the menace ot the
 agriculturist of Arizona lies in the alfalfa weevil. From small infesta- ton, which appeared in Utah several f wears ago, the range of the insects |. has spread until it now covers prac- - tically all the agricultural area or Q Utah, Idaho and parts of Nevadt' It 9 is still spreading, having this past
 summer been found in a patch ot al
 falfa growing in an automobile camp n on the Nevada California line.
 e Insect infestation travels along two e principal lines. The first is by nat e ural flight, or movement from 1ielo s to field in a cultivated country, where d crons upon which it feeds lie close e enough together for the insect to ge d from one to another. A second mode
 of infestation occurs when the lnsec'
 is carried in some conveyance like Id freight or passenger car, or by auto Ill mobile. of Fortunately from this standpoint ,n Arizona is pretty generally surround as ed by desert or other-non-1arnnhs l, territory, so the danger of predator. CT .bues coming in by natural movemen at from field to field is reduced to
 minimum. On the other hand, tn
 danger of infestation along the usua e. routes of commerce and travel IS al " ways present and it is agalnst tni in mode of ingress that the State Com st mission of Agriculture and Horticul ry ture. through the State Entomologls' Id plans it's principal defense.
 of The easiest way for bug to traVe on is to go like hobo f-in a freight ca u- though the bug is more difficult t
 find and put off Not only do cotto
 insects tfcr example) find hidin to place in such commodities as corto m- and cotton seed, and the alfal1 ls- weeyil secrete itself in alfalfa ha, no but these pests may also be found su- many kinds of farm produce
 on So, as a preliminary, Arlzona ns 'ns quarantine regulations prohibit shll on on ments of practically all kinds of far ,a un products, likely to carry these pest N from districts where cotton bo
 weevil, pink bool worm or altal1 ,o, weevil are found; and in the case ha immigrants coming into the Sta ,os from such districts, their househo rd. goods, implements and farm macm pm. cry are carefully inspected, and, whf ar it seems necessary, their baggage ftv we'll. All contraband articles mu ,di. either be sent out of the State by u He owner or burned.
 the As the normal person would wi
 ingly desire to infest country wi .. plant diseases or harmful insects, t CTS danger of people bringing them Tn, ion personal shipments, comes usual er- from carelessness or ignorance.
 of dealer will want to ship carload on, potatoes to Arizona from Idaho; t ost- bags, in which he sacks them, perha SOL have previously been used about ear falfa products; weevil hides in t be- folds of a bag, and if not stopped two quarantine laws would go with t
 shipment to destination. An afal
 weevil was found in Los Angeles tl ans, last summer, brought into Calif' cost mia in just this kind of way.
 the An easy way for the pink boil wol ,uct to enter Arizona would be to hide ms the picking bag of laborer conf ins. from Old Mexico. Inspectors at su eve- points of entry as Nogales exami