PLANT INSPECTION IN MISSOURI 15 



spection Service feels that up to the present time it has not made its way 

 to Missouri. However, as the European Corn borer is a new pest in the 

 United States and as it was probably present in Massachusetts and New 

 York about ten years before it was found it is still possible that it may be 

 present in Missouri. For this reason the Missouri inspection service is 

 doing everything possible to find it if it is present and during the summer 

 of 1921 still further inspection will be made. 



The European Corn borer is a medium sized moth the male of which 

 has a wing expansion of about one inch, the female a little more. The 

 front wings of the male are reddish brown while the hind wings have a 

 greyish tinge. The front wings of the female are of a dull yellowish color 

 streaked more or less with brown while the hind wings are grayish brown 

 in color. Under Missouri conditions the adult would probably appear early 

 in May. Soon after eggs would be deposited upon corn and other host 

 plants and in June the greenish colored caterpillars would appear. When 

 the caterpillar becomes full grown it is brownish or pinkish in color, from 

 one fifth to an inch long with dark spots and tubercles on its body and has 

 a brown shiny head. It is the caterpillar or larvae stage of the insect that 

 causes the injury. It is a boring insect and burrows within the roots stalk, 

 ear and tassel of the corn plant causing a weak, sickly plant and poor pol- 

 lination. The pest and its work is easiest to detect just after the tassels 

 appear. It passes the winter as a full grown caterpillar within its burrow 

 in the host plant. The present known method of control consists of de- 

 stroying the plant in which the pest is wintering or by utilizing it in some 

 manner. Where corn is used for ensilage or the fodder is shredded the 

 caterpillars are destroyed. Clean culture also helps to keep the pest down. 

 In Massachusetts and New York where the insect is bad, large sums of 

 money have been spent in collecting corn stalks, weeds and etc., during 

 the fall and winter and burning them in order to destroy the caterpillar. 

 The Missouri Plant Inspection Service is doing everything in its power to 

 keep this destructive pest out of Missouri. 



SWEET POTATO INSPECTION 



During the past few years the Sweet Potato weevil has become a verv 

 serious pest in some of the Southern States also some fungus diseases such 

 as black rot, foot rot, and dry rot have caused a large amount of damage 

 to sweet potatoes with the result that many of the Southern States have 

 promulgated rules and regulations governing the inspection and transpor- 

 tation of both seed sweet potatoes and sweet potato plants. The sweet 

 potato weevil is not present in Missouri and the Plant Inspection Service 

 intends to keep it out, however, some of the sweet potato diseases have 

 been found in certain sections of Missouri to some extent but not serious. 



Some of the states of the south on account of the sweet potato weevil 

 and the sweet potato diseases will not allow either seed sweet potatoes or 

 sweet potato slips to enter their state without first being inspected. Every 



k^ear hundreds of bushels of Missouri grown seed potatoes and thousands of 

 Missouri grown slips are shipped south and for the past two years the 

 Plant Inspection Service has been called upon to inspect these seed pota- 



