32 



THE IMPORTED CABBAGE WORM. 



{Pieris rapae, Linnaeus.) 



(Order Lepidoptera. Family Pierid^.) 



[Feeding upon the leaves of the cabhage and a few other plants ; 

 a rough sixteen-legged caterpillar, of a bluish-green color, marked 

 on the back with a yellow line and with a row of elongate yellow spots 

 low down on each side of the body on a line with the spiracles.] 



Notwithstanding the fact that entomologists in the United States 

 and Canada have devoted much attention to this species for the 

 past ten years, yet it virtually remains master of the situation. Not 

 that no effectual remedies have ever been discovered ; but such 

 remedies are found to be either too expensive, too dangerous, or too 

 difficult of application to be universally adopted. 



It is claimed that one of the best remedies, if not the best, is to dust 

 the infested plants with Insect powder {Pyrethrum.) It is usually 

 diluted with flour, at the rate of one ounce of the powder to five 

 ounces of flour, and thinly dusted over the infested plants. Some 

 persons use it in a solution of one ounce of the powder stirred in 

 about ten gallons of water. Either of these mixtures is said to be 

 very fatal, not only to the cabbage worms, but also to almost every 

 other msect that may be upon the plant. 



The chief drawback to the use of this substance is its present 

 high price. A variety of this plant is grown in California, under the 

 name of Buhach, and the powder made from this plant is said to be 

 as effectual in its action upon insects as the imported article. 



Another remedy, which has the advantage over the above of being 

 within the easy reach of all, was highly recommended by several 

 writers the past season. It consists of equal parts of saltpeter and 

 salt, dissolved in hot water and diluted with cold water ; this is to 

 be sprinkled upon the infested plants in the hottest part of the day 

 and when the sun is shining upon them. The proportion commonly 

 used is one tablespoonful of saltpeter and an equal quantity of salt 

 dissolved in hot water and diluted with ten or twelve quarts of 

 water ; but it is very difficult to give the exact quantity of each to 

 be used on account of the great difference in . the strength of the 



