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Show MICULUI II f INSECT ENEMIES OF TOBACCO Damage Done by Pe,sts Growing Larger Larg-er Each Year Throughout the Country Easy to Control. The United States produces approximately approx-imately 1,000,000,000 pounds of tobacco every year, but the farmers who grow thiB enormous crop pay each year a large dividend to Insect pests. The number of serious tobacco pc sts Is not large, and most of them are subject Leaf Injured by Leaf Miner. to easy methods of control. Yet, regardless re-gardless of these facts, the damage to tobacco by Insects Is growing heavier year by year. True, not all of this loss Is preventable, but a large amount of loss may be avoided by proper methods meth-ods of sowing the seeds, cultivation, rotation and various other Indirect as well as direct remedies which affect the Insects themselves. The tobacco Leaf Miner is an insect in-sect which Is considered easy to control. con-trol. The injury made by this insect is manifested by large irregular blotches appearing on the leaves. These are at first whitish, but later become very dry and parchment-like. Leaves injured in this way are unfit for wrapper purposes, as they tear very easily. There are two generations of the Leaf Miner each year, the winter being be-ing passed in the adult stage, the i adults hiding away in trash found about the tobacco barns. 1 The horse or bull seems to be the I original food plant of this insect, hence all wteds of this type should be kept out of the tobacco. Frequent cultivation of the tobacco, to-bacco, stirring the soil up quite close Tobacco Leaf Miner. to the plants will bury the pupae so deeply that the adult moths will be unable to reach the surface. The larvae may be destroyed in the leaves by pinching them, and if a close watch is kept they may be destroyed in this way before they have done much damage. The leaves seem to be able to recover from slight Injury, whereas if the larvae is allowed to continue its work, the leaves never recover. |
