12 
also does excellent service and destroys many. Other birds which are 
known to eat the potato beetle, on the authority of the Biological] 
Survey, are the following: Ruffed grouse, nighthawk, cuckoo, scarlet 
tanager, the wood, hermit, and olive-backed thrushes, and robin. 
The crow not only picks beetles from the vines, but digs them from 
the earth. The cardinal is a well-known potato-beetle destroyer, and 
even the English sparrow has been seen to eat them. 
Domestic fowls are of some assistance in destroying this pest, and 
of these the duck early took to this insect, which is distasteful to some 
other fowls. For some time after the spread of the Colorado beetle 
to new territory chickens did not attack it, presumably because it has, 
in common with many other leaf-beetles, a nauseous taste. For sev- 
eral years, indeed, it was believed to be actually poisonous. After a 
time, however, chickens became better acquainted with this insect 
and began devouring its eggs and afterwards the larve, finally eating 
the beetles with apparent relish. Skunks and snakes are reported to 
eat the beetles, and toads frequently gorge on them. 
cs 
METHODS OF CONTROL. 
This species is not a difficult one to control, no other method being 
necessary for-its destruction than the free use of an arsenical or 
mechanical means. Before taking up the remedies that may be most 
profitably employed, it may be well to preface with the statement that 
an arsenical liquid spray is preferred, and that dry arsenicals, hand- 
picking, and jarring are practicable only on a small scale where the 
grower has no spraying outfit, and occasionally when infestation is 
sheht and limited toa small area. Every market gardener should be 
equipped with a good spraying outfit. 
MECHANICAL METHODS. 
Jarring, if employed early in the season, is of considerable value. 
It is a time-worn remedy and so well known as scarcely to need 
description. It is customary in many localities to gather the beetles 
and their larve in pans containing a little water on which a very 
thin scum of kerosene is floating. Large shallow milk pans are excel- 
lent for this purpose. At the same time the egg masses should be 
picked where seen. Numerous apphances have been invented and 
some patented for destroying this pest, but the arsenicals are so 
effective that other remedies are really not necessary. 
Brushing—The susceptibility of potato-beetle larvae to extreme 
heat, as has already been recounted, indicates that a remedy much in 
vogue against the asparagus beetle, namely, the mere brushing of the 
larve from the plants on an extremely hot and dry day, will be effect- 
[Cir. 87] 
