February, ’20] 
FELT: EUROPEAN CORN BORER 
65 
Whether we wish to do so or not, we must shortly make a decision as 
to the economic status of the European corn borer. If we admit that 
it has serious potentialities and is capable of causing even a 10 per cent 
loss to the crop, we still have an insect of the first magnitude, worthy 
of most careful investigation and justifying the utilization of every 
reasonable measure to prevent spread and promote the control of the 
pest. Should it be decided, however, that this insect is of slight 
importance and is destined to have little effect upon the corn crop of 
the country, then we are compelled to hold that a moderate amount 
of knowledge concerning the insect is all that is necessary, that there 
is little justification for exhaustive investigations and that large scale 
control operations are indefensible. 
If the first be true, states vitally concerned and the federal govern¬ 
ment should make liberal appropriations for the further investigation 
and control of this insect. Otherwise, as professional entomologists, 
guardians of the public welfare, we should oppose all efforts to secure 
money for any such purpose. 
Problems Affecting Control Work 
The Bureau of Entomology last August proposed first of all to 
determine the present distribution of the insect as a basis for a quar¬ 
antine and other control measures. There are practical difficulties 
(10, p. 9) in following this plan and if there is to be effective control it 
will be necessary, in our opinion, to push more than one line of activity 
or else serious efforts to control the pest should be abandoned. The 
experience of the past season discloses some habits which emphasize 
the difficulties of handling the situation. The insect breeds in a con¬ 
siderable number of plants, over fifty, and has been found in the stems 
of quite a number of others. It is very probable that the borer multi¬ 
plies freely upon relatively few plants and that practically speaking 
we can ignore its presence in many. We may have with this pest a 
duplication in some respects of our experience with gypsy moth food 
plants. There is need of more information concerning methods of 
spread, though work in Massachusetts the past season shows that 
individual females may make a single flight of as much as 287 yards 
and that marked individuals were recovered at a distance of 600 yards. 
Females may live 33 days, the eggs being deposited in small masses 
during a considerable portion of this period. The maximum egg pro¬ 
duction from one individual was 1,192. The occurrence of the borers 
in underground stems and their occasional presence in farm crops 
such as oats, greatly complicates the problem of control. 
The apparent possibilities justify serious questions as to the 
feasibility of control. This latter can be determined only by field 
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