CHAPTER XVI 

 INSECTS AND THEIR CONTROL 



OF all the problems with which the horticulturist has to 

 contend, that of insect control is one of the most insistent 

 and baffling. From the time of plagues of locusts described 

 in the Old Testament to the present moment, insect depreda- 

 tions have not ceased to be a menace to human welfare in 

 every country. Sanderson gives some illuminating figures 

 regarding insect injury in the United States. He says that 

 cereal crops probably suffer a ravage amounting to three 

 hundred millions of dollars; hay crops are injured to the 

 extent of sixty-five millions; cotton suffers from the boll- 

 worm and other insects to the extent of eighty-five millions; 

 fruits are diminished in value fully 20 per cent each year, 

 making the total approach very close to thirty millions. The 

 forests suffer very severely, probably over one hundred ten 

 million dollars annually; live-stock products, three hundred 

 millions; stored goods of various kinds, two hundred mil- 

 lions ; truck crops, one hundred fifty millions. In addition 

 to these, the injury to various incidental crops brings the 

 total loss in one year to a figure well over one billion dollars. 

 In addition to these losses caused by injury, vast amounts are 

 spent each year on control of one sort or another. 



333. The insect. The technical name of insects is Hexa- 

 poda. The word indicates the basis on which they are sepa- 

 rated from the remainder of the animal kingdom, for Hexa 

 means six, and poda feet. An insect, therefore, is simply a 

 six-footed animal. The spiders, which are ordinarily asso- 

 ciated with insects, are different in that they have eight feet 

 instead of six. 



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