.37^ 



BUGS, INSECTS, ETC—REMEDIES F0& 



upon any other plants or not we are un- 

 able to say, never having found it eating 

 anything but cotton, and even when seen 

 on weeds in cotton fields the worm has 

 merely wandered away to find some suit- 

 able locality in which to spin its cocoon. 

 Several cotton worms, kept for the pur- 

 pose of experiment, constantly refused to 

 eat anything but cotton, although supplied 

 daily with iresh leaves of all the weeds or 

 plants in the neighborhood, and several 

 actually starved to death rather than 

 touch anything but cotton as a food. 



As far as the habits of the cotton cater- 

 pillar are known, whenever they have 

 appeared in Georgia or South Carolina 

 they almost invariably came from the 

 southward, and committed great ravages 

 some twenty or thirty miles off, a fortnight 

 or three weeks before making their ap- 

 pearance in the localities named. The 

 second and third broods of moths still 

 traveling further north, spread destruction 

 and devastation wherever they deposited 

 their eggs, until providentially killed by 

 the frost. If this theory of their north- 

 ward migration is correct, it would be 

 well for the planters to give a small re- 

 ward to the discoverer of the first cotton 

 •caterpillars in their neighborhood, and 

 then combine to turn their hands en masse 

 on the infested plantation, to crush, burn, 

 and destroy the insect in all its forms, as 

 worm, chrysalis in cocoon, or fly, even if 

 they have to burn the field to get rid of 

 them, and to pay the proprietor for the 

 damage done ; for they may rest assured 

 that if allowed to become moths, and 

 multiply without any effort being made to 

 destroy them, the flies will undoubtedly 

 migrate to all the neighboring plantations, 

 and their own crop will eventually be de- 

 stroyed among the rest. Many remedies 

 have been proposed for their extermina- 

 tion. Fires built at twilight in and near 

 cotton fields would doubtless burn up a 

 great many moths, yet it is very question- 

 able if these fires will not also attract 

 moths from other plantations, which es- 

 caping the fire will found new colonies, 

 when they otherwise might have been 

 content to remain where they were as 

 long as there was any cotton foliage left 

 for their progeny to devour. Large 

 shallow plates or dishes filled with 

 molasses or syrup with vinegar, or some 

 .strong aromatic substance, have been 



used in dry weather on a small scale with 

 success, epecially when the moth makes 

 its first appearance, as, being attracted by 

 the sweet scent, they crowd into the plate 

 and are drowned. Perhaps if a prepara- 

 tion of arsenic or some tasteless poison 

 were mixed with the syrup it would 

 answer better, as doubtless most ot the 

 moths visiting the plate, after satisfying 

 their appetite, escape being caught by 

 the viscid substance and fly off to the 

 neighboring plants. Hard wood boards 

 or shingles thickly coated on one side 

 with the poisoned preparation might be 

 used as a substitute for the plates, but in 

 this case the boards should either be 

 placed under temporary shelter, or in a 

 slanting position with the prepared side 

 underneath, so that heavy rains could not 

 wash off the poisoned mixture. Syrup 

 and rum painted or smeared on the 

 trunks of trees are extensively used by 

 continental entomologists to attract the 

 night-fly moths. 



If poison, however, in any shape is 

 used for exterminating noxious insects, 

 the hands working on the plantation 

 should be warned of it, otherwise many 

 of the young negroes might mysteriously 

 disappear with the moths, and it should 

 on no account whatever be used where 

 there are bee-hives in the neighborhood. 

 This poisoning process has nevertheless 

 been found to answer very well in Mary- 

 land and Virginia, where tobacco is the 

 staple crop. The sweetened poison being 

 dropped into the flower of the Jamestown 

 weed {Stramonium), or the tobacco blos- 

 soms themselves after having been cut 

 from the plant, the moth is attracted by 

 the flower and perfume in the early twi- 

 light, inserts its large flexible trunk, and 

 after imbibing the poison dies before hav- 

 ing time to deposit its eggs. This plan 

 has been practiced with decided success 

 in Florida by the planters of tobacco. 



The eggs of the cotton moth are fre- 

 quently destroyed by several species of 

 small ants, which are said to bite the egg 

 open when just deposited and to abstract 

 the substance. Many caterpillars, especi- 

 ally if weak or somewhat disabled, fall. 

 victims to the voracity of the restless 

 myriads of ants always abounding in the 

 fields, and feeding upon the honey dew 

 secreted by the cotton louse or aphis, and 

 the bodies of such other insects as they 



