154 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
June, 1918 
PROTECT YOUR GARDEN 
No. 7 WAR GARDEN SERIES 
L. G. Gentner 
If it is worth while to plant a gar- 
den, it is worth while to protect it. 
Insects cause heavy losses to garden 
crops where no effort is made to con- 
trol them, while a few simple meas- 
ures applied at the right time will 
usually entirely prevent such losses. 
One of the first things to do in the 
spring is to get the garden and fence 
corners free from weeds. At all times 
of the season gather up and destroy 
all old vines, stalks and refuse as soon 
as the crops are harvested. Refuse 
and weeds furnish food for insects 
aad shelter them for the winter if left 
in the garden. 
Do not let insects get a start. After 
they once become numerous on the 
plants it does not take long for them 
to do a large amount of injury, es- 
pecially on young plants. Every in- 
sect that you let live through the 
spring season will produce many more 
later. 
Where insects are few in number 
and are easily seen, they may be con- 
trolled by hand pickmg and destroy- 
ing. But in most cases it is much more 
practical to spray the plants. 
Liquid sprays may be applied with 
a small hand sprayer which can be 
bought at a small cost. Dust sprays 
may be dusted through a cloth sack, 
or perforated tin can or by means of 
a dust gun. 
Use Poisons on These 
Poison sprays, poison mashes, or 
contact sprays may be used to eradi- 
cate certain garden pests. Here are 
some of the most common insects, to- 
gether with the poisons to use on each 
of them. 
Chewing Insects. Insects that eat 
the leaves and tender parts of the 
plants may be controlled by spraying 
plants with lead arsenate at the rate 
of 1 ounce (15 level teaspoons) to 
each gallon of water. When applied 
to plants with smooth foliage, such as 
cabbage, it is necessary to add about 
% ounce of common laundry soap to 
every gallon of spray to make it 
spread and stick better. Instead of 
using it as a spray, lead arsenate may 
be dusted on the plants early in the 
morning while they are still wet with 
dew. When used in this way it may 
be diluted with 3 to 5 times its weight 
of air-slaked lime or fine dust. Lead 
arsenate is preferable to Paris green 
because it remains on the foliage 
longer, is not so likely to burn the 
leaves, and is cheaper, especially since 
the war has greatly increased the 
price of Paris green. 
Cutworms cut off young plants near 
the surface of the soil and eat the 
foliage of older plants, feeding at 
night and hiding in the ground during 
the day. A small number of plants 
may be protected by cutting the tops 
and bottoms out of tin cans and plac- 
ing them over the plants, pushing 
them well into the soil. Keeping down 
weeds and thorough cultivating of the 
soil is also of value. Larger areas 
may be protected by applying poison 
bran mash to the soil in the late af- 
ternoon or early evening. Either 
broadcast the material or place in lit- 
tle heaps near the bases of the plants. 
Care should be taken to keep poultry 
and livestock away from it. 
Be Careful of Poisons 
Lead arsenate, white ar- 
senic, and Paiis green, re- 
commended in this circular, 
are deadly poisons, and care 
should be taken to keep them 
away from children and 
domestic animals. Bean 
plants should not be sprayed 
after the pods have formed, 
nor tomatoes after the fruit 
is nearly full grown. There 
is no danger of poisoning to 
the consumer from eating 
sprayed cabbage because the 
cabbage head grows from the 
inside and the outer leaves 
are removed before cooking. 
The outer leaves, however, 
may luive enough poison on 
them to kill stock. 
To make up the poison bran mash 
mix 2 ounces of white arsenic or 4 
ounces of arsenate of lead with 3 
pounds of bran. Dissolve 1 ounce of 
salt and 2 ounces of cheap syrup or 
molasses in a small quantity of water. 
Then mix all together, adding enough 
water to make a crumbly mash. 
Grasshoppers may be controlled by 
poison bran mash made up as for cut- 
worms, except that % teaspoon of 
lemon extract or the pulp of % or- 
ange or lemon should be used instead 
of the molasses. The mash should be 
applied in the early morning so that 
it will not dry out before the insects 
feed on it. If the grasshoppers keep 
coming in from neighboring grass 
fields scatter the mash along the edge 
of the garden toward the field and re- 
new from time to time. 
Plant lice are small, soft-bodied in- 
sects which may be found massed to- 
gether on the under sides of leaves 
and on tender shoots. They injure 
the plants by sucking the juices and 
for this reason cannot be controlled 
with arsenate of lead. They may be 
controlled by applying some contact 
spray, such as strong soap (prefer- 
ably fish oil soap) at the rate of one- 
half pound to 4 gallons of water; or 
nicotine sulfate, 1 teaspoon to 1 gal- 
lon of water with the addition of a 
little soap. The spray must actual- 
ly cover the insects and should be 
forced well into curled leaves. If all 
are not killed by the first application, 
the spray should be repeated. 
Kill These Directly 
Some common garden insects can- 
not be reached or controlled by 
sprays, and must be removed by gath- 
erng the insects and destroying them, 
or by destroying their eggs. 
Squash bugs cannot readily be con- 
trolled by means of sprays. They will 
collect under pieces of board or bur- 
lap and may be gathered and destroy- 
ed early in the morning. The reddish 
brown eggs are laid in clusters on 
the underside of the leaves and may 
be gathered and destroyed. 
Repellants Keep These Out 
Many insects which cannot be eas- 
ily poisoned or killed directly may be 
kept out of the garden to a greater or 
less extent by the use of repellants — 
which keep the insects away, even 
though they do not kill them. 
Root Maggots. The cabbage mag- 
got may be controlled on cabbage and 
cauliflower plants by placing tarred 
felt dices about the stems of the plant 
at the surface of the soil, just as they 
are being set out. After the maggots 
have begun to work on the roots there 
is no practical remedy. 
For maggots attacking onions, rad- 
ish and turnips no satisfactory reme- 
dy has as yet been found. Infested 
plants should be pulled up and des- 
troyed. 
Tarnished plant bugs, dull grayish 
to brownish pests about M inch long, 
fly readily when disturbed and cannot 
be controlled with sprays. They may 
be driven from the garden by dusting 
the rows with wood ashes, working 
from one side to the other. 
Flea Beetles. These little black 
jumping beetles are quite often ser- 
ious on potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages, 
beans, and similar plants. Arsenates 
of lead seem to have little effect on 
them, but they can be kept away from 
the plants with Bordeaux mixture. In 
preparing this spray slake 1 pound 
of lime in 5 gallons of water and dis- 
solve 1 pound of blue vitriol in a sep- 
arate 5 gallons of water. In separate 
solutions these materials will keep in- 
definitely. For application, stir both 
thoroughly and pour equal amounts of 
each into a spray can. Mix the two 
by stirring, and apply as well as pos- 
sible to both the upper and lower 
leaf surfaces. 
Cucumber Beetles. These yellow 
and black striped or spotted beetles 
are also not easily affected by poison, 
but their food plants, such as cucum- 
bers, squash, and melons, can be made 
unattractive to them by dusting with a 
mixture of powdered lime and tobacco 
dust. Mix 1 pound of tobacco dust in 
2 pounds of well-pulverized lime and 
dust the mixture onto the plants, us- 
ing a gunny sack or a tin can with 
small holes in the bottom. 
