116 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF 



numerous authentic cases on record, where persons who have scalded 

 to death quantities of these larvae, and inhaled the fumes from their 

 bodies have been taken seriously ill, and even been confined to their 

 beds for many days in consequence. 



Artificial Remedies. — It only remains to say something on the 

 most approved method of fighting the Colorado Potato-beetle. A 

 great deal may be effected by raising your potatoes at a point as re- 

 mote as possible from any ground where potatoes were raised in the 

 preceding year. A great deal may also be accomplished,, where there 

 are no other potato patches in the immediate neighborhood, by killing 

 every beetle found upon the vines in the spring, as fast as they emerge 

 from the ground. By this means the evil is nipped in the bud, and a 

 pretty effectual stop is put to the further propagation of the insect. 

 But if there are potato patches near by, where no attention is paid to 

 destroying the beetles, they will keep perpetually flying in upon you 

 in spite of all you can do. 



I have already stated that this insect cannot be driven as can the- 

 blister beetles, and we have to rely on other measures. 1 might oc- 

 cupy page after page in detailing the experiments that have been 

 tried by myself and by others. JBut of all the mixtures recommended 

 I can seriously recommend none. They are impracticable on a large 

 scale, and require too frequent repetition to be efficient, as the beetles 

 issue from the ground day after day. White hellebore,, paris green ? 

 slaked lime, etc., etc., I have proved by experiment to be valueless, 

 though the two first will kill, if thoroughly applied, a certain propor- 

 tion of the larva?, but will not affect the beetles ; and even cresylic 

 acid soap, which is the best wash of the kind, does not kill them all. 

 Hot water affects the pests as fatally as any of these applications, 

 and when I state that I have known the beetles to bore through three 

 inches of hard unleached ashes, the folly of their application to the 

 vines becomes at once apparent. 



1, therefore, again impress upon my readers the importance of pre- 

 [pig. 63.} vention by killing every beetle which first 



appears in the spring. There is no better 

 way of doing this than by crushing them on 

 the spot, and for this purpose a very simple 

 pair of pincers may be constructed. At 

 Figure 63 I represent a pair that were used 

 hist summer by S. H. Ford, of Rollins: Prairie, 

 Wisconsin, and which were kindly sent to 

 me by L. L. Fairchild of the same place. 

 Their construction is so simple that it neede 

 no explanation, two pieces of wood, a screw, 

 and two small strips of leather being the only 

 things needed. 



In parts of Iowa, the ravages of this in- 

 sect were so serious in 1866, that a horse- 

 machine was invented for their destruction 



