aiEXICAN BEAN BEETLE — WHITE 347 



Indiana and southwestern Michigan. This year was also featured 

 by reports of its advance beyond the center of New Hampshire into 

 Maine to the Atlantic coast. Its spread since 1932 has been limited 

 apparently having by this time reached the areas most suitable for its 

 survival in noticeable numbers. An isolated infestation was found in 

 Minnesota in 1933 and in Iowa in 1935 but judging from the record 

 the beetle has been unable to thrive in these locations. 



The spread of this insect, as given from year to year, can be con- 

 sidered unusually dependable, because of the universal practice of 

 planting beans by the farmer and home gardener. With every agri- 

 culturist vitally and personally interested, reports as to the progress 

 of the beetle were received, thus providing a more accurate picture of 

 the spread of the pest than would have been available had the insect 

 been a depredator of some less popular crop. 



The entrance of the beetle into new territory was usually attended, 

 in many areas, by a severe loss to the bean grower. The home gardener 

 was probably the greatest sufferer. Now, suddenly, the gardener 

 found his bean plantings ravaged by an unfamiliar pest which he was 

 totally unprepared to combat, and so severe was the damage that in 

 many places tlie growing of beans in the home garden was abandoned. 

 The destruction came to the grower with a sudden force since the habits 

 of the insect are such that its feeding, being confined to the under 

 surface of the leaves, escaped notice until the damage was done, and 

 the bean patch upon which the gardener had counted became, appar- 

 ently almost overnight, a scorched and wasted ruin. 



Fortunately, as is true of most insects, the impact of the initial influx 

 was not repeated each year. In the following years severe damage 

 was intermittent in nature, and the gardner was able to marshal his 

 defenses and protect his crop either by insecticidal control or by select- 

 ing a planting date which would avoid injury. The bean beetle has 

 now assumed the status of many of our common pests— a pest the 

 gi-ower must be on guard against but one which is not viewed with 

 such alarm as when its character was not so well known. Undoubt- 

 edly, however, the presence of the bean beetle has reduced the home 

 planting of long-season varieties of beans such as the pole and lima. 



In their efforts to control the bean beetle, many materials were tried 

 by the growers, and belief in the efficacy of certain materials and 

 methods still persist, even when the fallacy of this belief has been 

 demonstrated. A case in point is the use of epsom salt, which was 

 recommended by local sages for the control of the bean beetle. When 

 reports as to the efficacy of this material reached the Department of 

 Agriculture, experiments were conducted which conclusively dem- 

 onstrated that this material is of no practical value for the control 

 of the bean beetle. 



