CHAPTER XXXV 

 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO GARDEN TRUCK 



Only the market gardener and those who have tried to raise 

 a few vegetables in their own kitchen gardens realize how many 

 and how vexing are the insect pests of garden truck. The an- 

 nual value of the truck crops in the United States is estimated 

 to be more than three hundred million dollars, and yet each 

 year the insects take about one-fifth of the vegetable crops, 

 causing a loss, therefore, of more than sixty million dollars. 



The garden pests, like those of the orchards and grain fields, 

 are various in kind and life-history and in the manner in which 

 they work their injuries. Leaf-eating beetles are especially 

 numerous and serious in their attacks. The black and yellow 

 striped Colorado potato-beetle, the active, leaping, little flea- 

 beetles and the spotted and striped Diabroticas are conspicuous 

 and familiar examples of these leaf-eaters. The caterpillars 

 of various moths and butterflies also strip or mutilate the 

 leaves of many vegetables. Cut-worms and army-worms are 

 notorious pests of this kind. The naked green cabbage-worm, 

 which is the larva of a dainty white butterfly imported from 

 Europe half a century ago, is an especially serious caterpillar 

 enemy of cabbages and other cruciferous garden plants. Several 

 species of aphids often occur in sufficient numbers to do serious 

 damage to peas, beets, cabbages and other vegetables. Squash- 

 bugs, the harlequin cabbage-bugs, certain leaf-hoppers and 

 other sucking bugs of the order Hemiptera take a heavy toll 

 of plant sap from many garden plants. 



The remedies for garden pests have to be, like those for the 

 pests of vineyards and berries, especially devised to fit the 

 particular conditions of vegetable growing. Not many kinds 

 of garden truck can be sprayed with arsenical poisons, although 

 some, of course, notably potato plants, can. Such simple 



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