36 The Bulletin. 



ISTeedless Alarm. — In recent years there has been a great deal of 

 entirely needless alarm over the occasional finding of these worms in 

 heads of cabbage, but as a matter of fact they are not poisonous and 



Fig. 15.— The Cabbage " Snake"— really a worm. About natural size. 

 (Adapted from Chittenden, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



do no harm whatever, and if they should be occasionally eaten by acci- 

 dent with the cooked cabbage no harm could result. 



Chemical analyses of the worms have been made without finding evi- 

 dence of any poisonous substances whatever. Nevertheless local papers 

 and press despatches occasionally refer to persons being poisoned by eat- 

 ing cabbage which is infested by this really harmless but supposedly 

 poisonous worm. 



While there is not really the slightest need of paying any attention 

 whatever to these disquieting rumors, and while the cabbage is still a 

 healthy and delicious vegetable (as it has always been), still a good 

 •many sincere persons have become so uneasy over the matter that they 

 hesitate to eat cabbage, even though they are fond of it, and in some 

 localities it is said that local stores and markets have had a noticeable 

 decrease in demand for cabbage. We believe, however, that this "false 

 alarm" is dying out in this State, and surely the general demand for 

 cabbage throughout the country at large has not been any less on account 

 of it. 



The Facts. — As a matter of fact this "Cabbage Snake" is not really 

 a snake at all, nor is it a true insect, since there is no state of its ex- 

 istence when it has legs, wings, or "feelers." It is merely a ivorm, and 

 is a worm from the time it hatches from the egg until it dies of old age. 



These worms (either the same one found in cabbage or others very 

 close kin to it) are found in various situations. As already indicated 

 they may be found in the head of cabbage. One was sent to this office 

 taken from the core of an apple. Several have been sent in by persons 

 who found them in well water. They have been found as parasites 

 inside the bodies of grasshoppers, crickets and other insects. When found 

 in apples the explanation probably is that they were first parasitic in 

 the caterpillar which infests the fruit of the apple. Wliile we can not 

 positively tell just how they get into cabbage it seems likely that they 

 are first parasitic inside the bodies of grasshoppers or other insects (per- 

 haps one of the cabbage worms) and are left in the head of cabbage 



