EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 



325 



INSECTS OF THE CABBAGE. 



The cabbage is a great sufferer from insect attacks. From the time 

 the plants are large enough to transplant until they are harvested, 

 they are beset with numerous insect pests. The earliest species to attack 

 cabbages is 



THE CABBAGE FLEA. BEETLE (Phyllotreta vittata Fabr.). 



\.y. 



Not only young cabbages, but turnips, radishes, tomatoes, 

 and many other plants suffer from the work of this pest. 

 The minute shining black beetles, with two wavy white 

 lines above, are shy and will leap a long distance on 

 being approached. They gnaw little holes in the leaves 



Fig 42.— Cabbage and of the youug plants and later the larvae feed on the roots. 



Tamip Flea Beetle. There are Several broods, but the first one does the harm. 

 Remedies. — Lime or land plaster dusted over the plants is a very good 



protection. Tobacco as a dust or a decoction is generally considered more 



effectual. 



THE CABBAGE-ROOT MAGGOT (Phorbia brassicce Bonche). 



The cabbage-root maggot is a diffi- 

 cult pest to manage, as its work is 

 usually at an end before the cab- 

 bage shows any outward signs of 

 its work, and then a remedy comes 

 too late. The roots are so badly 

 eaten and perforated that the cab- 

 bage plant soon dies. On pulling 

 the wilted plant, the most of the 

 poot will be found to have been 

 eaten and the remainder often in 



Fig. 43.-Cabbage-Root Maggot, (a) maggot natural ^ decaying Condition. OccasioU- 

 Bize, (0) magnined; (c) imago. "^i.-Vi i ., . ■, 



ally a little white maggot, less 

 than one fifth of an inch long, will be found in digging up an affected 

 plant. Usually by the time a plant has reached this stage, the maggots 

 have burrowed a short distance away from the root and will be found as 

 pupse resembling, somewhat, a little oblong brown seed. The paupa later 

 changes to a fly that is much like our common house-fly. The first brood 

 of maggots, that attack the cabbage roots in the latter part of May or 

 early in June, is the most destructive one, but young cabbages put out in 

 early June also suffer from an attack by the second brood. The life of a 

 maggot is from three to four weeks. 



The best means to protect from the maggot is to plant cabbages and 

 radishes in a new place each year, as far removed from the ground on 

 which they were raised the preceding year as possible. The most success- 

 ful remedy that we have yet found is an emulsion made either from crude 

 carbolic acid or from kerosene. A quantity of this emulsion, prepared 

 according to directions given under " Insecticides," is poured around each 

 plant sufficient to wet the roots at about the time the maggots are expected 

 to appear, or even immediately upon the first appearance of injury. Mr. 



