April, '15] 



HEADLEE: ESSENTIALS OF INSECT CONTROL 



275 



by any personal promise. They want a knowledge of what the certi- 

 ficates of the various control officials mean, to have information of 

 what is being consigned to persons or firms doing business in the state, 

 and to examine a considerable percentage of the total amount coming 

 in. Of course, it is their desire to examine all stock coming in under 

 a certificate with the meaning of which they are not familiar, all enter- 

 ing under a permit not backed by adequate inspection, and all which 

 comes from regions infested with exceptionally injurious forms. 



Peeventing Outbreaks of Already Established Insects 



Basing his opinion upon the insect and plant disease control laws 

 now in force in the different states and upon his experience in enforcing 

 laws of this sort in two different states, it seems to the writer that the 

 work of preventing the establishment of seriously injurious insects is 

 far more effectively done than is the work of controlling the outbreaks 

 of already well-established species. Year out and year in the standard 

 pests of the country gather headway in some parts of their range and 

 do large damage. Sometimes the coming outbreak is foreseen and 

 adequate preparations made to meet it, but rarely is this so. There 

 are certain great difficulties in the way of handling this problem in an 

 efficient manner. The first of these is the securing of adequate in- 

 formation as to the abundance of the obscure stages in different parts 

 of the area. The second is found in interpreting such data as may be 

 collected. The third is the placing of this information before the 

 public in such a fashion that the persons who should have it, will get 

 it and act upon it. 



The problem of determining the abundance of the pest can be solved 

 only by extensive and continuous scrutiny — that type of scrutiny which 

 will keep the control official informed the year round as to just what 

 each stage of each pest is doing and how much above the normal the 

 existing density of the infestation is. A few control officials practice 

 this regular and satisfactory method of obtaining information to some 

 extent, but the number doing it is small and those that do make use 

 of it rarely attempt to cover the whole field. 



The problem of interpreting the data thus gathered is difficult, 

 partly because the data of the findings and the results during the grow- 

 ing season of previous years are not only meagre but not organized in 

 such a fashion as to render them available and partly because the 

 effect of natural enemy and of weather conditions is too poorly under- 

 stood. We need the accumulation of experience along these lines 

 that comes only as the result of well-directed effort. The control 

 officials should begin this accumulation and the attention of experi- 

 mentalists should be drawn to this field of entomological work. 



