Show f j f Bartl lIs i t Af lo ore o rea r c and a rt n d dmore II i y i r. r ol M 1 more scientists I i n Jk do Jf are coming to to I f. fea that in insect m. m sect life which RA outnumbers all r other kinds of oJ animal anima ani m a I life combined will wit f 1 some day dom dam dominate I taste the earth i 1 and destroy us u I. I ruthlessly as a as a. the giants l 11 i l of the fairy fairytales Fair fF F y tales did their t victims i 1 fr I Airplane spreading clouds of poison dust over a southern cotton field to save it from the devouring boll t weevils 7 2 47 j Why All Mankind's Strongest F Forces f i I Must Be Quickly Mobilized If WeAre We Are to Keep This World From Being Ruled by Bugs Beetles and Worms Warms T we lIEN we see sec men sailing the theair theair V air exploring the depths of the sea and penetrating to all the of the earth we arc are apt to pat pat pridefully on the back and think there is nothing in Nature of which the human race will not very soon prove to be the complete master But Dut scientists dentists who measure with care care- careful careful careful ful accuracy the progress of mans man's un un- unending unending un- un unending ending conflict with the forces of Nature tell a different story Their records and observations lead to the Belief that there is imminent danger of humanity's being doomed to destruction by one or another mother of the forces which in our boastful moments we like to think we arc are wiping out of existence or fast making subject to our will Take for example the warfare which mankind has been waging ever since before the dawn of history h story with those In told myriads of wriggling flying and crawling creatures which we call insects At the present moment in spite of all the powerful and ingenious weapons science is able to bring to bear on these foes this is ia proving a losing battle for forthe forthe forthe the human race Of tho insect species that arc are most dangerous to human life we can point to hardly one that has hIlS been definitely wiped out of existence and to very v ry few that have been rendered powerless of doing us harm hann The best we can hope In most cases casu after going to tremendous trouble and expense in combating them themIs Is that we have them under control control- that they are not injuring us quite as much as they formerly did But Dut for every species that we get under a precarious control of new are arc appearing from Natures Nature's apparently inexhaustible insect incubator incubator bator to menace us with their deadly deadly- bites biles the disease germs they carry about and most serious of all their voracious appetites for the crops on which we have to depend for existence By Dy using fleets of airplanes to spread poison dust clouds over over our our cotton fields we are beginning to hold our own it is believed against the boll weevil But Dut DutO O no sooner have havo we ve achieved this partial triumph than our lines linea of defense are aro broken down and our trenches overrun by an even more serious insect enemy enemy- the Japanese beetle which devours al almost ol- ol almost most every kind of vegetation And so 80 it goes Out Our progress progress' against our insect foes seems to be little better than that of the man who was trying to limb out of the well and who slipped back every night a n slightly greater dis dis- distance distance distance tance than he had ascended J during the Jay doy Will the insects ever become powerful nough to dominate the earth and de- de us as ruthlessly as the of the fairy tales did their This Thes is a fate which many novelists have often pictured for the human race and it is one which more and more scientists are arc declaring to be not at all impossible In a recent article William Atherton Du Puy declares that mens men's old ages-old conflict with the insects is far from be be- being being being ing certainly a victory for the highest of Natures Nature's children For some time he thinks the battle has been going against humanity and he believes that a not impossible imposible outcome of it is the de de- defeat defeat feat of man through the destruction of his food supplies Until within the last few years year yea as Mr Du Puy and other scientists point out every back yard in small towns and villages and many of those In large huge cities held a few trees that produced plentiful crops of fruit year after year with little or no attention Now most of these are vanished and the rest are vanishing rapidly Why Because in recent years these fruit trees tree have been attacked by a great variety of insect foes and the people who own them cannot afford to employ the expensive and time taking methods required to combat them and prevent their ruining the tho fruit crop and the trees themselves The same condition that is limiting the production of fruit to the large larce scale growers is making itself felt in almost every other line of agriculture and very soon it must result in creating a serious shortage in the worlds world's food supply It is a n curious fact that many of the scientific achievements which are be be- believed believed believed of the greatest benefit to man man- mankind mankind kind are the very cry things thin that are arc doing the most to increase the tho baneful power of or the insects to wipe out the human race and ond make this world a ruled bug-ruled place Swift ocean liners railroad trains train automobiles and airships do great good Left grub of the Japanese beetle bee b e e t 1 e Americas America's newest dreadful insect ins e c t enemy and one that threat threat- threatens ens to overrun the whole country Below pupa of the common rain barrel mosquito which science is be be- beginning beginning ginning to despair l. l of ever wiping out completely j t K r rby by bringing far distant clans of the tho human race into close touch t with one another But Dut these same means of transportation tion carry from one part of the earth insects that may be quito quite harmless there to another part where they do incalculable damage The boll weevil is quite harm harm- harmless harmless less in its native Mexico but once it was imported to this country it proves the greatest menace our cotton fields have ever had to face The Japanese beetle living in Japan for nobody knows how long has never done any harm there thero worth worrying about As soon as asit asit it reached America however it found climatic and other condi condl conditions conditions that favored its rapid multi multi- multiplication multiplication multiplication and gave it a ravenous appetite appetito for almost everything that grows here Not only our grain and fruit and vegetable crops but our shade trees and the velvety lawns of country estates and golf gol links arc put in ip greater danger than ever before by these pesky little immigrants from Japan In the estima estima- estimation estimation estimation tion of many scientists they constitute the real yellow peril The first of these beetles to reach each this country are believed to have come cling clinging ing to some iris bulbs imported from Japan It was only a few years ago that they arrived and quite probably there thero were no more than three or four of them But now they have multiplied into countless billions and are arr destroying grass roots and other vegetation over a t. t t Iasi I I r J S 1 5 Pc Below the boll weevil at its work of ruining a cotton plant t S y ry l. l I r large area in the Eastern United States S tes Tho The diameter of the circle in which they is carry carryon on their devastating operations increasing by about five miles every ever year and science has yet to find an effective means meaDS of stopping them The Japanese beetles beetle's spread over the entire United States threatens to be much like that of the Colorado beetle commonly known as the tho potato bug There Thero are still living in the eastern states farmers who can remember when this bug was something to be dreaded only by b potato raisers in Colorado and other parts of the For Far West But Dut it long ago became impossible to raise potatoes in ini any an part of the country JI n n he Ii J J t The house fly which takes a heavy toll of human life by spreading disease d is i s e a s e germs wherever it goes without a long and costly campaign to protect them from the ravages of the tho Colorado beetle It took the Colorado beetle only forty-five forty years to spread its de destructive de- de destructive e. e activities over the whole American continent Within the past three years it has made its appear appear- appearance appearance ance in a potato growing area about miles in extent around the city of or Bor Dor- Bordeaux Bordeaux deaux denux in France England is greatly alarmed lest the pest reach that country and has recently forbidden the importation of potatoes from the infected area Dr L. L 0 O. Howard chief of the govern Jovern- government government ment Bureau of Entomology and one of the greatest living authorities on insects thinks that mans man's insect foes can never be annihilated But Dut he is hopeful that by mobilizing all his hu forces man can reduce their numbers and hold them down dOW l to a minimum of destructive activity Greatly enlarged view of ther the r r notorious cootie which typifies to millions of soldiers ex-soldiers all the worst evils of the insect world I It remains to be seen whether the human race will have the wisdom to mobilize all its forces in such a n fight before it is too late There is as asyet asyet asyet yet no sign of any such course in inthe inthe inthe the United States or 01 any an other country countr The United States Bureau of Entomology g at present has a stall staff of and a yearly ap ap- appropriation appropriation of 2500 to carry on its fight tt t w on the tho Japanese J beetle b tle and other pests which are costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars dol in crops de de- de There is ia pressing need of more men and md more funds Bulbs Dulbs ore are believed to be one of the most likely ways of transporting insect pests from one country to another and for this reason it is expected that the United States Department nt of Agriculture will forbid the tho importation of them after this year It is estimated that from 85 to 00 DO DOper per cent of the insect pest this country faces are arc due to foreign im im- im The gypsy and brown tail moths were brought here from Europe the corn borer from Europe and the tho San Jose scale from China The introduction of the gypsy ps moths was due to the accidental breaking of ofa a glass jar in which a scientist had brought here a few of the tho insects in inthe inthe n the hope of breeding them with silk silk- worms This unfortunate accident occurred six fifty-six years y ars ago Since then the gypsy moths are aro estimated to have hao caused damage amounting to and the tho costs are arc still mounting These moths arc are quite harmless in their native Europe but within ten years after their arrival here they were eating foliage fo ago of or an appalling proportion of the trees in Massachusetts Now they have e spread into Connecticut New Hampshire and Maine and no sure way Va has yet been discovered of checking their progress into still other states |