Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1878 — Insect Enemies. [ARTICLE]

Insect Enemies.

The insect enemies of the farmer are so exceedingly numerous that it is not altogether a matter Of wonder that he sometimes despairs of ever ridding himself of them. They lay in wait for the springing up or ripening of every and after a season, perhaps, of sharp and desperate conflict with the farmer, come off victorious at last. The Hessian fly comes to rob him of his wheat before it has scarcelv started from the ground; the midge is ready to destroy what the fly happens to leave; the striped and squash bugs devastate his cucumber and melon vines; the Colorado potato beetle feasts in his potato field; the codling moth is ready when his apples are ready; the curculio devours his plums, and thus we .might go on to enumerate until sothe branch of this army of depredators could be found watching, with the intention of devouring, every species of vegetation. It is surely a formidable foe that the farmer Hhs to contend with, but it was never intended that it should achieve a permanent, or much of a victory over man. If he permits himself to be conquered by an army of bugs and worms, the fault is with him, and is found in his neglect to equip himself with suitable weapons for the warfare. If a General is going to command in a battle, he should nave as much knowledge of the strength, habits and condition of the enemy as it is possible for him to acquire; anything short of this would be sufficient to subject him to a court-martial. Without this knowledge defeat would be more than possible, and with it victory would be altogether probable. Equally true is it that defeat may be expected whenever we attempt to contend with the insect enemies of the fields, unless we go into the battle intelligently and with all the knowledge that it is possible for us to obtain. Surely we need to know the nature and habits of the insect that we are attacking. We need to know how it is propagated, when it comes into life, the time it begins its depredations, its mode of attack, and how long it continues. Nothing is plainer than this, and yet many utterly neglect the study of these things, and go to the work of attempting to destroy insects without any intelligent understanding of their habits. Snch a course is simply shooting in the dark, a stray, shot occasionally hitting the object at which we ought to take deliberate aim, but the great mass of the charge being utterly wasted. From some States are now coming complaints of the serious ravages of the Hessian fly. Now, what are the nature and habits of the Hessian fly F When and where are its eggs laid? When do they hatch? In what particular do they injure the wheat? Hundred* can answer these questions readily and intelligently, and there are hundreds who can't. There are many who have never had occasion to study the subject, and yet all departments of entomology are legitimate studies for the farmer, >nd by applying himself to them In his leisure, he would often be prepared for emergencies. The Hessian fly lays its eggs in September; the eggs are laid upon .the wheat; in a few days they hatch; the larvae then passes down the leaf into the base of the stem, and there weakens the plant by sucking the juice. In this position it becomes apupa, and from that a perfect fly in the spring. This flv again lays its eggs upon the wheat and they agaip from the stubble

in mid-summer, and the same process of development is again gone through up to the perfect fly, which is ready to lay its eggs again on the early fall-sown wneat. This is the nature and habits of the Hessian fly, and what does it suggest by way of a remedy, and which would never be suggested unless we were familiar with the manner of its development? Burning the stubble is the thing suggested. H this be done soon after harvest, it is plain to be seen that the Hessian fly will have a hard time of it This illustrates how very important it is to understand these little enemies before we attempt their destruction. A knowledge of the habits of other insects will readily demonstrate as easy means for their destruction. The Colorado potato-beetle is an illustration. Knowing that this insect's appetite is so enormous, and that it seems to eat without tasting, we are enabled to feed it all the Paris-green that it can eat before the poison kills it. A more careful study of entomology would greatly benefit us.— Western Rural.