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Show Those Pestiferous Farm Pests Now Succumbing to New Light Traps To the left Is a trap using black-lamps. black-lamps. Insects attracted to light, fly past it to strike backboard; back-board; stunned, tlicy full into net. Bcloiv is an incandescent type light trap. Inserts are destroyed . in trying to fly through energized wire grid around 4-sided cage. ; . 7 ".-4 ! ljvi .-,1 v.o.v. v.. j. j By IRA MILLER Farm Electriication Bureau Farmers can swat an occasional mosquito. Or, they can retreat to the protection of a screened-in porch if these pests become too numerous for individual action. There are lots of other pests, however, which can't be dealt with so easily. Included are numerous night-flying moths which feast so well and so destructively on a variety of crops. Neither swatting nor screens hold any terrors for some pestiferous pests. Entomologists have battled these moths for years with insecticides, plowing techniques and other control methods. But they still rise up year after year to cause hundreds of millions mil-lions of dollars of damage annuallv S349, 635,000 to field crops alone. The latest attack on them has been made via electrically operated light traps. Although not fully recommended as ei by the United States Department of Agriculture, such traps are proving their worth in various test cases. Many of the traps now in use are of two major types. Both are illus- 1 trated in this article. One uses black-1 light lamps to attract insects; the other incandescent lamps. The prin- J ciple of one type is to cause the ; swiftly-flying moths to zip past the I blacklight lamps and strike against a i backboard. Momentarily stunned by the unexpected contact, the moths' drop down into a mesh bag, from which they cannot escape and where they later are destroyed. The second type, as shown here, employs em-ploys four 300 watt lamps. In attempting attempt-ing to reach the lights, the moths pass thrmieh a wire grid which is energized with high voltage, low amperage current. Contact with the grid destroys the insects. Among the injurious insects destroyed de-stroyed are codling moths, pink boll-worms, boll-worms, corn borers, tobacco and tomato hornworms and cigarette beetles. No claims have been made that the various traps provide 100 protection to crops; only that they offer a most c-;Tc:ive method for controlling con-trolling pc-:'s. And, the tremendous quantities of harmful insects destroyed de-stroyed by them backs up this statement. |