488 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
ears”); and between October 1 and May 31 each year, all matured corn 
in the shuck unless in carload lots and fumigated as may be required 
by the Board. There are no restrictions, however, on root crops 
from which the tops have been removed completely, or upon peanuts, 
tomatoes, canteloupes, watermelons, berries, grapes, nuts or tree 
fruits. 
3. Hays and similar forage crops, including corn stover. 
4. Nursery stock, except when such stock and packing materials 
have been so treated as to destroy the Mexican bean beetle in all stages 
or in hibernation. 
Similar quarantine regulations will probably be adopted by the 
Federal Horticultural Board and by such states as may establish quar¬ 
antines. Uniformity in the matter of requirements is highly desirable, 
and the Alabama quarantine embodies all of the restrictions which 
have been agreed upon in the several conferences held by the cotton 
states entomologists and agents of the Bureau of Entomology and the 
Federal Horticultural Board. The quarantined area is already an 
interstate matter, as the safety zone extends for about twenty-five 
miles into the northwestern corner of Georgia. 
Of course quarantines can only retard the spread of the bean beetle 
by commercial agencies. The annual dissemination by flight is certain 
to continue, as has that of the Mexican cotton boll weevil. But the 
area to be invaded by the bean beetle will very certainly exceed by far 
that affected by the boll weevil. It will be more like that now infested 
by the Colorado potato beetle. There appears to be no natural barrier, 
geographical or climatic, to prevent its steady spread even to the 
northern and eastern limits of the United States, and possibly to any 
section where beans are grown abundantly. The navy bean crop of 
the country seems likely to suffer very seriously. 
The prospect for the future is not bright. The state and federal 
funds available appear to be entirely inadequate for such prompt and 
complete study of this pest as its importance demands. Control by 
parasites and natural enemies is not at all probable, as the bean beetles 
are repellent to birds and seem to have very few enemies even in their 
western habitat where they have occurred for forty, or more, years. 
Possibly some natural enemies might be found in Mexico where the 
species seems to have originated, and a diligent search for them should 
be made in that country as soon as possible. Those who have studied 
the situation most closely seem agreed that the entire agricultural 
system of the United States, in food and forage products and in the 
renewal of soil fertility, has never been so seriously menaced by 
any native, or introduced, insect pest, as it is now by the spread of the 
Mexican bean beetle. 
