118 



Atlaclc. — Velvety greeu cateriiilhirs, commonly known as Cabbage Worms, 

 about an inch in length, with a iirokeu yellow line along each side, and an 

 unbroken one down the middle of the back. At first eating tlie outside leaves, 

 but eventually boring right into the head of the cabbage. These, after three 

 or four weeks, produce the white butterflies so common in gardens. 



This injurious insect, which was imported into Canada about 1S59. has 

 now spread across the Dominion, and is every year the cause of considerable 

 loss, not only to cabbages but also to turnips and other plants of the same 

 family. It is, however, one of the easiest of the well known insect, pests to 

 control. There are two broods during the growing season, and sometimes a 

 late supplementary one, of which the caterpillars are found as late as 

 November. Farmers and gardeners should watch for the first ajipearance of 

 the larviT:> and apply the remcd.v promptly. The eggs are laid b.v the female 

 butterflies on the leaves. 



Itcmcthj. — The caterpillars can be destroyed easily by dusting the plants 

 with a mixture of one pound of pyrethrum insect powder and four pounds of 

 cheap flour. Mix the whole together and keep it in a tightly closed canister 

 or jar for 24 hours. The powder is then ready for use and may be dusted over 

 the cabbages either with a cheese-cloth bag tapped lightly with a slender 

 stick, or from one of the various insect guns, or dusters, now sold by seedsmen. 

 The advantage of this remedy over many others which are recommended is 

 that, although insect powder is so deadl.v to caterpillars and most insects, it 

 is quite harmless to human beings and the higher animals. 



The rather prevalent custom of using Paris green and other arsenical 

 poisons on cabbages and other vegetables, must be condemned as being very 

 dangerous without any commensurate advantage. 



Blister Beetles (Epicaiila sp.). 



Among the usuall.v uninipoi-tant injuries to potatoes wliicli on occasion 

 become more extensive and involve large areas, are those due to swarms of 

 Blister Beetles, long, cylindrical shaped beetles with soft bodies, which fly 

 to fields and swarming over the potatoes devour the leaves rapidly. As a 

 rule, these swarms remain only for a short time and then pass away. 



A remedy which has been adopted successfully consists of driving the 

 swarms from a crop by several people walking across it with branches or 

 other cons])icuous objects in their hands, waving them from side to side and 

 driving these easily disturbed beetles ahead of them until they come to the 

 edge of the crop, where they will disperse and seldom return. It is undesir- 

 alile to destroy the Blister Beetles if this can be avoided, because in their 

 larval form they are predaceous parasites on the eggs of grasshoppers; but. 

 as in the case of nearly all leaf-eating insects, these can be destroyed by 

 spraying the crops with a poisonous mixture such as one of the arsenites. 

 Prof. F. M. Webster has found that crops sprayed with Bordeaux mixture are 

 not attacked by Blister Beetles and as all potato crops should be sprayed with 

 Bordeaux mixture every year, there is no reason why they should suffer 

 from these insects. In addition to potatoes, many other crops and plants, 

 particularly members of the pea family, are attacked by different species of 

 Blister Beetles. 



