48 The Colorado Experiment Station. 
POTATOES. 
The Colorado Potato Beetle (Leptinotara lo-lineata ). 
The striped Colorado potato beetle is too well known to need 
description. The remedies are also quite generally known and are 
as follows: Early in the season collect as many of the adult beetles 
and their eggs as is possible and destroy them to prevent injury 
from the brood of young that would otherwise destroy the potato 
tops. If the eggs have been allowed to hatch and the young beetles 
are numerous upon the potatoes, the best remedy is the application 
of one of the arsenical poisons. Paris green may be used in the 
form of a spray in the proportion of one pound of the powder to 
each fifty gallons of water. If arsenate of lead is employed, dilute 
two pounds of the powdered form or four pounds of the paste to 
each fifty gallons of water. If a second brood appears, repeat the 
treatment for them. 
The Potato Tuber Moth (Phthorimaea operculella). 
This very destructive insect has been introduced into Colorado 
from infested districts in Southern California and Texas, but so far 
as I am able to determine, it has not as yet become established in 
any portion of the state. 
This insect is an importation from China and bids to be one 
of the most serious enemies to potato growing in the the southern 
potato growing sections of the United States. Attention is called 
to this insect here chiefly for the purpose of warning growers of 
the possibility of introducing it in their communities and to ask for 
prompt information from anyone who suspects this insect to'be at¬ 
tacking his crop. 
The adult insect is a small, dark colored, narrow winged 
moth, which measures about one-half of an inch from tip to tip 
of its wings when they are spread. The eggs are laid upon the 
tubers, or upon the leaves or stems of the potato plant. The light 
colored worm, upon emerging from the egg, burrows into tuber, 
stem, or leaf, as the case may be, and feeds until it is fully grown, 
when it is about one-third of an inch in length. There are several 
broods during the year. The greatest injury is usually done to 
potatoes in storage, and especially if the temperature is high enough 
to be favorable for the development of this pest. 
Remedies. —About the only remedies to be suggested are the 
burning of the potato tops when the insect is found to be burrowing 
into them, the careful gathering of all of the cull potatoes from the 
field at digging time, and the fumigation of cellar and storage 
rooms where the tubers are being kept. 
