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Th e United States Department of Agriculture (425) in 1930 stated that 
rotenone was being tested against the European corn borer. According to a 
press release of the Department, dated March 11, 1938, derris spray is a 
promising insecticide, for control of the European corn borer on early mar- 
ket sweet corn. It must be applied during the comparatively brief period 
the caterpillar spends on the outside of the plant. The Department on 
April 23, 1938, announced in a press release that several new insecticides 
recently developed by the Department gave effective and practical borer 
control for early crops. These insecticides— nicotine tannate spray, der- 
ris spray, phenothiazine spray, and a nicotine dust— mixed with suitable 
spreaders, must be applied to plants as soon as the borer eggs begin to 
hatch, before the young caterpillars have had time to find shelter beneath 
leaf sheaths and inside corn husks or stalks. 
Campbell (60) in 1932 reviev/ed previous work on rotenone. V/orthley 
tested rotenone as a dust (with talc as a carrier) against the European 
corn borer. A certain number of eggs (from 598 to 679) were seeded into 
each of four plots of sweet corn, which were then dusted as follows: (l) 
with 5 percent of rotenone, (2) with 1 percent of rotenone, (3) with 0.33 
percent of rotenone, and (4-) with pure talc. On the check plots 2,450 eggs 
were placed. Six larvae, or 0.88 percent of the number of eggs, wore found 
in (l); 44, or 7.12 percent, in (2); 52, or 8.55 percent, in (3); and 50, 
or 8.36 percent, in (4). In the check plots 305, or 12.51 percent, were 
recovered. Only the 5-percent rotenone dust was markedly effective. 
Ficht (132) in 1933 reported that in Indiana, two applications of a 
proprietary pyrethrum soap (pyrethrum = 1.82 gm. per 100 cc. ) at a concen- 
tration of 1:400, together with rotenone at 1:40,000, reduced the number of 
larvae 53.6 percent. Lead arsenate (3 applications each at the rate of 4 
lb. per 100 gal.) reduced the number 47.8 percent. A proprietary derris 
extract [Derrisol?] when added to an oil emulsion only slightly increased 
its effectiveness in reducing larval infestation. 
Batchelder, in a typewritten report to the Division of Cereal and 
Forage Insects, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, United States 
Department of Agriculture, in 1936, reported that derris spray (4 lb. of 
4-percent powder per 100 gal. plus butyl phenyl phenol sodium sulfonate 
at 1:2,500) and derris dust (1 percent rotenone) were tested against sec- 
ond-generation borers infesting dahlias at Milford, Conn., in August 1936. 
The derris spray reduced the population 32.1 percent; the dust 72 percent. 
Phenothiazine and nicotine preparations were equally good. In November 
1936 he reported tests against European corn borer in seed sweet corn at 
Milford. Derris dust (1 percent rotenone) reduced theppulation 56.3 por- 
cent, being somewhat less effective than dual-fixed nicotine as a dust 
(66.1 percent) or as a spray (64.1 percent reduction). B ler In 1937 
reported that the corn borer population in ears of early market sweet corn 
in Connecticut, when treated with derris spray (4 lb. of 5-] 
per 100 gal.) under commercial conditions, was reduced 78 at, 
Batchelder (25_) in 1938 reported that in 19 37 at New Haven derris spray ro- 
duced the corn borer population in ears of early market sweet corn 77 p< 
cent. Cube dust reduced the population infestii lias li rimenti 
plots about 90 percent. In August 1939 ho (26) reported that derris spr 
(rotenono 0.023 percent; made by adding 4 lb. of derris powder to 100 gal. 
of wator) containing Ultrawot 0.062 percent reduced infestation 82.2 per- 
cent in the plants and 80.6 porcont in the cars of early market sweet com, 
infested with the first generation at Nov/ Haven in 19 37. 
