Milford chronicle., 1925-07-24
POTATO BUGS HERE
FOR HALF CENTURY;
new CASTLE co. FIRST
Made Their Appearance In Bran
dywine And Christiana Hun
dreds In 1878.

beetle has crossed the borders of
Delaware from New Jersey as well
as Pennsylvania, recalls the appear
ance in this section of the Colorado
beetle, that became known as the
potato bug, more than fifty years
ago. The potatO-destroying insect
that sprang from almost nowhere, in
the foothills of the Rockies, caused
much dread in advance of his COM
ing and farmers were discussing the
giving up of raising tubers, confident
that the beetles would defeat all
their efforts. The potato bug had
been known in the then frontier
state almost fifty years before he be-
came a menace to the farmers who
cultivated potatoes, but for thirty or
forty years he had shown no intima-
ton of his devilish propensities, but
subsisted on a species of wild pota-
toes in Colorado. Eventually he turn
ed his greedy attention to the culti-
waited ones of the farmers. Previous
to attacking the cultivated potato he
had just about been able to perpetu-
ate his species, and at times seemed
to have disappeared almost entirely
as if extinct.
Eventually, however, with increas-
ing numbers and the more streng-
thening diet-the tops Of growing
tubers-he thrOve marvellously and
even before the Civil War he began
migrating to other states, moving
east, west, north and south, but for
some unfathomed reason delayed his
invasion of two of the latter group
of states, until he had already COW
cred the entire United States and
Canada. Delaware farmers had
closely viewed the advance Of the
pests with fear and with fOrebod-
ings that their potato crop must
necessarily be abandoned, but the
beetle was delayed in reaching the
Diamond State until 1878, when un-
mistakable evidence was manifested
that they had obtained sure foot
hold here, and that there was no
hope of ever routing him. Farmers
were discouraged at the outlook and
at loss as to how to combat the in
Vader.
The crops of potatoes for 1878 and
1879 were almost totally destroyed
in upper Delaware the pest reach
ing New Castle county first. They
were soon identified in Brandywine
and Christiana hundred as the i'm
migrants from the western frontier,
whose approach had been heralded
long in advance. By the year 1881
the Colorado beetles were scattered
through the state and farmers were
trying to fight them but with little
success. At first it was thought
chickens and turkeys would devOur
them and fatten their growing brOOds
from the young bugs which literally
covered the potato plants.
This hope, however, was immedi-
ately dispelled, for the barnyard
fowls not only rejected the pests as
an article of diet but came to shun
them as semi-poisonous when taken
into the stomach. Such, indeed, they
were, it is said, by score of the old
er farmers, then country lads. The
carcass of the potato bug was so re-
pellent to human flesh that one pres
sing them between the fingers suffer-
ed considerable inconvenience, the
fingers blistering where they came
into contact with crushed insects.
The problem that confronted the
Delaware farmers and potato grow
ers in all parts Of the state was in
deed a serious one and various meth
DDS were resorted to in order to save
the potato crop, one of the most
valuable and essential of farm pro-
ducts. For the first five or six years
after the Colorado bug had reached
Delaware, farmers were compelled
to pick them from the vines, but so
vOraciOus were the appetites of the
pests that often in the course Of a
single day the plant, branches,
leaves and stems would disappear as
if blighted by fire.
Eventually it was discovered that
Paris Green and other forms of ar
senic killed the bugs and the larvae
they deposited on the plants, and
this applied in plaster early in the
morning so that the dew would hold
the application to the leaves, saved
the potatoes, but never succeeded in
decreasing the great army of the
beetles, which today attack every po-
tato field in North America.
Strange as it may seem, the same
bugs do not thrive in England where
some were accidentally landed, but
soon after disappeared. Others like
wise reaching Great Britain later
failed again to get foothold and
soon died out.
Beyond doubt the Colorado beetle
is the most destructive pest the Am
erican farmer has ever had thus far
to combat. He has added almost 10
per cent to the cost of raising pota-
toes-in the value of Paris green
and the cost of labor in applying it
three or four times while the crop is
maturing. The losses that it has en-
tailed, in curtailing the yield of
spuds even when the bugs were held
in allegiance, were also immense,
and it is estimated that the humble
little striped beetle that long fought
for a bare living on wild plants in
the foothills of the Rockies has cost
this country and Canada between
$3,000,000,0 900 and $4,O00,0O0,000 since
his discovery and migration to all
quarters.
But what Of the Japanese beetle,
whose presence in Delaware is al
ready proved. Unlike the Colorado
beetle, which disturbs little but the
plant Of the potato and which has
been circumvented by poison, the
pest from Nippon attacks almost ev-
cry green thing. There is almost
nothing that escapes those artisti-
cally colored immigrants. They de-
stroy buds and blossoms, and fruit,
vegetables, shade trees and shrub
berry, grass, and even weeds are not
immune from their ravages. Thus
e.. A1.o..o hos hnnr, M nhnrninal dis