THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



69 



The army worm moth, like all the cutworm moths, is often very 

 destructive. Fortunately, it has so many insect enemies— braconid fly 

 parasites and carabid predators — that it comes only rarely in alarming 

 numbers. The same is less true of the alfalfa butterfly, which in 

 occasional years is no mean pest. 



The bran mash — twenty pounds of wheat bran, one pound white 

 arsenic, one gallon cheap mola.sses. with enough water, about one 

 gallon, so it will ball in the hands — placed in the affected area poisons 

 both the army worms and locusts. Burning adjacent weed fields where 

 the young locusts hatch and may be cremated wholesale, is another 

 means of extermination. The hopper-dozer.^ a scraper-shaped arrange- 

 ment, with a shallow pan of kerosene oil, drawn through the field will 

 often capture the hoppers by the millions. 



3 4 5 



Fig. 15. — The alfalfa weevil (Phi/tonomus posticus Gyll.). 1, eggs; 2, larva; 

 3, cocoon; 4, pupa; 5, adult. (After Webster.) 



The wireworms are a problem yet unsolved Fortunately, they are 

 seldom widespread or alarming. 



The alfalfa w^eevil Phijtonomus posticus (Fig. 15, 5), not yet in Cali- 

 fornia, is a formidable pest. If diligence and hard effort will hold it 

 off, it will never come here. If, in spite of all effort, it is introduced, 

 we must know it at. once and stamp it out before it becomes distributed.^' 



Root Knot. 



This trouble, characterized by knots on the roots, is doubtless caiLsed 

 by the common eelworm (Heterodera radicicola). It works on sev- 

 eral of our valued plants and on many weeds. It is assuming great 

 importance agriculturally among our economic problems. 



^Injurious and Beneficial Insects of California. E. O. Essig, State Commission of 

 Horticulture, The Monthly Bulletin, Vol. 2. Nos. 1 and 2, p. 7. 



2See The Monthly Bulletin, State Commission of Horticulture, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 19. 



