REPORT OF THE DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY AND BOTANY 55 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



these caterpillars came from British Columbia, but as no specimens were received, 

 it was impossible to say with certainty what the species was which was at work. 



'Peachland, B.C., May 28, 1908. — I have a lot of garden stuff this spring and the 

 cutworms are devouring everything. Thousands of tomato and other plants have been 

 cut. Where the land is kept cultivated and no other crops growing between the peach 

 trees, they are climbing the trees. — H. W. Crawlky.' 



' Peachland, B.C., June 20. — The cutworms here have caused a loss of thousands 

 of dollars in seeds and plants and labour, not counting the loss of the season's crops 

 of such things as tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, &c. Young fruit trees have suffered; 

 rhubarb, onions, strawberries, in fact evei-ything is attacked by them. — H. W. Crawlky.' 



In Ontario the Dark-sided Cutworm, Paragrotis messoria Harr. and the Red- 

 backed Cutworm, P. ochrogaster Gn. were responsible for most of the damage. The 

 . - Greasy Cutworm, Agi'otis ypsilon Rott. was locally injurious in fields of corn, as was 

 also the Glassy Cutworm, Iladena devastatrix Brace. 



The most effective remedy against cutworms is the poisoned bran which has 

 lately come into such wide use. This is made by mixing half a pound of Paris green 

 with fifty pounds of slightly moistened bran. In making this it is best first to dampen 

 some of the bran slightly with water containing a little sugar or molass&s. After 

 mixing thoroughly, add the Paris green by dusting it on the surface and stirring all 

 the time. Half a pound of Paris green is enough to poison fifty pounds of bran, 

 although double this amount may be used. If the mixture is too wet, more bran 

 should be stirred in until the mixture will crumble easily and run through the fingers 

 without adhering. When required for garden use, all that is necessary is to sprinkle 

 a little of the mixture by hand around such plants as are liable to attack. When 

 crops are planted in drills or in rows, a convenient way is to make the mixtvire rather 

 dry, and then distribute it by m.eans of a Planet Jr. or other wheel seeder. In field 

 practice, among such close growing crops as standing grain, the poisoned bran is also 

 serviceable. The mixture can be distributed by means of a paddle or shingle, and 

 can be thrown easily to a distance of 20 feet. When distributed in this way, there 

 is much less danger of chickens and birds picking it up than if it is placed in lumps. 

 Strange to say, the cutworms will devour the poisoned bran in preference to the 

 growing plants. 



The Apple Leaf-hopper, Empoasca mali LeB. — In eastern Ontario and Quebec, 

 the ravages of the Apple Leaf-hopper, to potatoes, beans and many other kinds of 

 plants, were very serious ; in fact, this outbreak was one of the most important of the 

 year. This insect, which is very small, slender, pale greenish, about one-eighth of 

 an inch long when mature, is closely allied to the Thrip, which commonly attacks the 

 Virginian Creeper and causes the leaves to dry up and fall about the beginning of 

 August. 



The Apple Leaf-hopper began to make its presence apparent towards the end 

 of June, by causing the leaves of the attacked plants to curl up and turn brown. The 

 injury is done by thousands of these small insects, sucking the juices from the leaves 

 and stems of the plant, which very soon blackens and fades. Some correspondents 

 have thought that the injury to potatoes was due to the ravages of the well-known 

 Potato Blight, a fungous disease, and have been surprised that the standard remedy 

 for that disease, viz. : spraying the foliage with Bordeaux mixture, had not had the 

 desired effect of stopping the injury. The young leaf-hoppers do not get their wings 

 for some timo after they hatch from the cgp;. It is during this stage that most of 

 the harm is done, and this is the only time when a remedy can be applied with much 

 success. As they are sucking insects, something which will kill by merely coming 

 into contact with their bodies must be used, such as whale-oil soap, one pound in 

 fi\"e gallons of water, or the ordinary kerosene emulsion. Potatoes which were sprayed 

 with both of these mixtures early in July, before the young leaf-hoppei-s had acquired 



