CHAPTER VII 

 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETABLES 



IN this chapter only the more common insects infesting 

 garden vegetables are mentioned. There are many others 

 that almost yearly cause some damage to our crops and 

 which in occasional years cause serious loss. But to discuss 

 them would require more space than can be afforded here. 



Classes. In dealing with insect pests it is well to 

 remember that biting insects, such as potato beetles and 

 blister beetles, are generally most surely destroyed by 

 arsenical poisons, such as Paris green; while sucking insects, 

 such as plant lice and chinch bugs, are not affected by them 

 but are most readily destroyed by external applications, as 

 tobacco water and kerosene emulsion. 



Natural Enemies. We should also remember that in 

 our war upon injurious insects we have the support of 

 most of the birds and of the moles and shrews, and these 

 should be protected as the friends of man rather than be 

 destroyed, as is too often the case among thoughtless or 

 ignorant people. Moles and shrews are especially useful, 

 since they work under ground and feed largely on various 

 insects that are difficult to destroy on account of their 

 living in the soil. It is perhaps no exaggeration to say 

 that the shrew (often called mole) will eat its weight of 

 insects each day. Insects are also subject to attacks of 

 parasites or of fungous and other diseases, which destroy 

 them in large numbers and often in a very short time. 



-When insects appear in small numbers, hand picking 

 is often a very efficient remedy, but when they become 



