88 SOME INSECTS INJURIOUS TO TRUCK CROPS. 
GUINEA FOWLS AS DESTROYERS OF THE POTATO BEETLE. 
The efficiency of the guinea fowl in destroying the Colorado potato 
beetle does not appear to have received much mention in available 
literature. Two special correspondents of this office have written 
the writer on this topic, one of them recently, and their experience 
is well worth publishing. 
June 1, 1907, Mr. F. W. Speegle, Bremen, Cullman County, Ala., 
wrote that about 25 years ago the potato “bugs” made their appear- 
ance in his county and increased until they were so numerous 
that it was a hard fight to raise potatoes at all. Having learned 
that the guinea fowl would eat the beetles, he at once began to 
raise the fowls. In the spring of 1905, when the beetles appeared, 
the guineas were induced to enter the potato patch by strewing 
corn about the vines. After eating the corn the fowls consumed 
the beetles, apparently with great relish, and less than a week later 
not a ‘‘bug”’ could be found on the potato tops. A good crop was 
made, which was also clean of scab. He had the same experience in 
1906, and since then had not seen a potato beetle in his potato fields 
and only a few on his entire farm. A few occurred out of the range 
of his guineas on what he terms ‘‘tread-soft” (probably a Solanum), 
which seems to be the principal diet of the bugs, excepting the 
potato. His neighbors who had no guinea fowls had as much trouble 
with the potato beetles as he did before he obtained the guineas. 
Writing on the same topic Dr. George Vanden, Gallipolis, Ohio, 
stated in a letter received May 1, 1909, that many years ago when 
the Colorado potato beetle was very bad and when he and his neigh- 
bors had potatoes in adjoining patches, the neighbors “‘bugged”’ 
faithfully, but the bugs ‘‘ multiplied and replenished,” and the patch 
was very ragged, while his own vines were fine and flourishing, 
although no remedies had been applied. He soon found that the good 
condition of his own vines was due to his flock of between 20 and 30 
full-grown guinea fowls that patrolled the patch and converted the 
“bugs” from a nuisance into ‘‘good guinea feed.” He expressed 
himself as believing that this combination of raising potatoes and 
guinea fowls would not only be feasible, but to the mutual advantage 
of the potatoes and the guineas; at least it worked satisfactorily in 
his case. 
It is to be hoped that correspondents who are troubled with potato 
beetles will make tests of the efficiency of the guinea fowl as a destroyer 
of this and other garden pests. 
NOTES ON THE POTATO STALK WEEVIL. 
Since the publication of a comprehensive article on the potato 
stalk weevil (Trichobaris trinotata Say) in 1902% a few data have 
aBul. 33, Bur. Ent. U. 8S. Dept. Agr., pp. 9-18, 1902. 
