INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1904. 171 



REMEDIES FOR SOME COMMON PESTS OF THE VEGE- 

 TABLE GARDEN. 



Some insect pests, like the poor, we have always with us, and to 

 forestall many inquiries which will reach this office in the future, as 

 they have in the past, we include here remedies for these common 

 insects, even though they may have been treated of before. These 

 pests are everywhere more or less abundant, and possibly with 

 one exception, so well known to our farmers that we omit descrip- 

 tions, confining ourselves simply to remedial measures. 



Cut Worms: Late fall plowing, thus bringing up ,the pupae 

 where they are subject to extremes of temperature, and the attacks 

 of blackbirds, crows, poultry, etc. Cleaning up and burning all 

 rubbish. Poison bundles of clover with a strong solution of Paris 

 green and strew the same among the plants which are being cut. 

 We have been successful with these poison baits. Plant an exces- 

 sive number of seeds or plants. Cylinders of tin, fruit cans with ends 

 melted out are good, or cardboard, or even paper placed around 

 young plants, melons, squashes, cucumbers, etc., and extending into 

 the earth two or three inches will protect plants until they get 

 beyond danger. We have trapped them by placing flat on the 

 ground cabbage leaves or any large leaves or boards among plants 

 needing protection, finding the worms underneath these traps in 

 the morning. We have frequently found the guilty worm con- 

 cealed an inch or two in the soil in the morning, not far from the 

 plant injured in the night. We have poisoned them by making a 

 bran mash, sweetening it with molasses or sugar (it should not be 

 sloppy) and adding Paris green liberally. Place one or two tea- 

 spoonfuls of this near the base of each plant likely to be cut. It 

 should not be placed too near tender plants — beans, melons, cucum- 

 bers, etc. — since a heavy rain would wash the Paris green against 

 the plants and injure them. Arsenic may be used in place of Paris 

 green, observing the same precautions. Land recently in sod is 

 likely to be infested, and the crop following sod is pretty sure to 

 sufifer, if attractive to these pests. Nursery trees affected by 

 climbing cut worms may be sprayed with Paris green, or cotton 

 or tin barriers fastened about trunks, or a ring of one of the 

 various sticky compounds on the market placed around the trunks. 



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