10 



FARMERS BULLETIN 868. 



Fig. 10.— Potato flea-bee- 

 tle: Adult. This species 

 does much injury to 

 young plants. Actual 

 length shown by line at 

 right. 



potatoes also were present. The aggregate of attack shows injury 

 about equal on these two crops. Attack was so sudden and severe 

 that no remedies were applie<:l so far as could be learned. 



The eggplant flea-beetle ^ (fig. 11) and the tobacco flea-beetle ^ 

 (fig. 12) also attack potato, but each is more common on the plant 

 from which its English name is derived. 



REMEDIES FOR FLEA-BEETLES ON POTATO. 



When potatoes are sprayed with arsenate of lead 

 for the Colorado potato beetle and with Bordeaux 

 mixture for diseases, these beetles are repelled to 

 a considerable extent. Because of their active 

 jumping and flying habits these insects are not 

 likely to remain on the plants during spraying, 

 and so are not poisoned, but they do not seem to 

 attack foliage that has been covered properly with 

 either spray material. 



Although the subject of experiment for many 

 years, the most efficient remedy for the potato flea- 

 beetle remams to be found. The general opinion seems to be, hov/- 

 ever, that Bordeaux mixture alone, acting as a repeUant, is the best. 

 All wild plants of the potato family should be pulled up or other- 

 wise destroyed throughout the season in order that the insects may 

 have no other breeding place. 



CUTWORMS. 



Cutworms frequently do considerable damage to potatoes early in 

 the season and sometimes later. They feed chiefly at night and in 

 the shade, cutting off the young plants about 

 even with the gromid. A common species 

 is the so-called granulated cutworm,^ shown 

 in figure 13. 



The best remedy for cutworais is poisoiunl 

 bait. To mix and apply this bait take a 

 bushel of dry bran, add 1 pomid of white 

 arsenic or Paris green, and mix it thorouglily 

 into a mash with 8 gallons of water, into 

 which has been stirred 2 quarts of sorghum 

 or other cheap molasses. This amount will 

 be sufficient for the treatment of about 4 or 5 

 acres of cultivated crops. Alter the mash has 



stood for several hom's, scatter it, in lumps about the size of a marble, 

 over the fields where the injury is beginning to appear and about the 

 bases of the plants attacked. Apply the bait late in the day, so as to 



Fig. 11.— Eggplant flea beetle, an 

 insect which also attacks potato: 

 Adult. Greatly enlarged. 



1 Epitrixfuscula Or. 



2 EpilTu parvula Fab. 



'Fellia anne to Treit. 



