THE POTATO IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 57 



Fig. 52. Burbank (after Macoun). 

 INSECT PESTS. 



Colorado Potato-beetle. (Fig. 53.) The potato -growers in British Columbia are 

 fortunate in not having to fight the Colorado beetle, or " potato-bug," as it is com- 

 monly known in the East. This pest, however, is established in the States of Idaho 

 and Washington and last year (1919) crossed the Boundary. The infestation was 

 in the potato-patch at Newgate, in East Kootenay. Fortunately the pest was noticed in 

 time and, we have reason to believe, was completely exterminated. It will mean a 

 good deal of increased expense, especially to the growers in the Dry Belt, .where 

 spraying is at present not necessary, if this pest should become generally distributed 



Fig. 53. Colorado potato-beetle (after Bethune). 



over the Province. It is very important, therefore, that any outbreaks which may 

 occur be completely cleaned up in the early stages. For this reason any insect 

 suspected of being this pest should be sent at once to some officer of the Department 

 of Agriculture for examination. In order to help identification by those not familiar 

 with it a brief description is here given. The insect is most likely to be met with 

 in the larval or grub stage. 



The adult beetle is about % inch long, rather broad in proportion- to its length, 

 orange in colour, with ten black stripes down its back. The eggs are yellow and 

 laid in patches on the under-side of the leaves. The larvie are of a brick-red colour 

 and of a peculiar and characteristic hump-back form. They are a little over ^ inch 

 long when full-grown. They feed with great voracity for about three weeks and 

 pupate in the soil. 



Blister-beetle. In the Dry Belt a certain amount of damage is done by a slender, 

 grey-black beette (blister-beetle) which eats the leaves. No doubt this insect can 

 be destroyed by spraying with arsenicals such as arsenate of lead or Paris green. 

 It is doubtful, however, whether this is advisable. Although the adult insect does 

 some injury, its larvoe feed on the eggs of the locust (grasshoppers), and, therefore, 

 on the whole, it is probably a useful insect. 



Wireworms. These pests are more or less prevalent everywhere and are very 

 hard to exterminate. They are the larv of " click -beetles " or " skipjacks " and 

 are liable to be found in numbers in land that has previously been in meadow, and 



