sugar=beet production in many areas is pessible cnly by the use 
of lower yielding varieties that are resistant to curly top. 
The other insects that attack sugar beets are usually either 
spotted in distribution or sporadic in occurrence. They include 
the beet webworm, sugar-beet root maggot, sugar-beet root aphid, 
and various plant bugs, wireworms, cutworms, armyworms, grass- 
hoppers, white grubs, and flea beetles. Fairly satisfactory con- 
trol measures are now available except for the beet leafhopper. 
There is no satisfactory basis for estimating losses to sugar 
beets from these insects. 
Sugar Cane 
The sugar cane borer is the most injurious insect attacking sugar 
cane in the United Stetes. The annual loss tc the crop grown for 
sugar and seed in Florida and Louisiana over the period 192—S1 
averaged 650,000 tons of cane valued at approximately $3,871,000. 
This loss represents about 9.l,; percent of the potential production 
in the country. These estimates are based on the percent of bored 
sugarcane joints found in annual harvesttime surveys. In addition, 
the insect attacks corn, rice, and sorghums, causing large additional 
losses for which estimates are not availatie. 
Young larvae of the sugarcane borer bore into the young plants, 
destroying the central tissues and causing dead hearts. In older 
plants the borers attack the stalks near the tops, causing dead 
tops, and tunnel in the stalks, weakening them so that they break 
over. Tunneling by the borer also causes a loss in weight amd 
sucrose anc injures seed cane. 
Control measures consist of the destruction of overwintering 
borers in cane trash, planting resistant varieties of sugar cane, 
parasite introduction, and use of insecticides, 
Tobacco 
Tobacco in plant. beds is damaged chiefly by cutworms, flea beetles, 
green June beetle larvae, and vegetable weevils. Before the young 
transplants become established in the field, they are often killed 
or stunted by wireworms, flea beetle larvae, and cutworms in the 
soil, and by flea beetle adults on the foliage. The older plants 
are damaged by hornworms, the tobacco budworm, and aphids. Grasg-= 
hoppers, the corn earworm, the garden fleahopper, the suckfly, and 
thrips occasionally cause damage. Damage by aphids was unknown 
prior to 196. The vegetable weevil was first reported on tobacco 
in Florida in 1937, and has been spreading to other areas. In 191.0 
the loss due to these insects was estimated, without any reliable 
basis, as about 11 percent, and there has probably been little 
change since then. During the period 192=51 the annual less to 
tobacco by all insects is estimated to have averaged about $108,°995,000. 
= Gal & 
