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Sugar-beet Moth
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The moth, of which we give an enlarged representation in Fig. 218, has become in recent years the object of attention in those portions of the West in which the cultivation of the sugar-beet has become an industry of magnitude. It has done considerable damage to the crop in Nebraska. There are two and perhaps three broods produced in a year. The insect multiplies with great rapidity, and large areas planted with the beet have been defoliated by the caterpillars in comparatively a short time. The larvae hibernate in cases woven of silk to which particles of earth are adherent, and which are formed at a small depth under the surface of the soil. By harrowing the ground it has been ascertained that many of the cases are thrown up, and are emptied of the larvae by the meadow-larks and other insectivorous birds, or are killed by the frosts of winter. Many of them, however, escape such treatment, being possessed of vitality enough to withstand a great degree of cold. It has been suggested that a better way in which to rid the fields of the pests is to apply Paris green to the beets, in a solution composed on one pound of the poison to two hundred gallons of water. The spraying of the plants by the mixture is said to have proved efficacious in cases where the application was made as soon as it was ascertained that the insects were at work upon the leaves. Nature in this case, as in multitudes of others, comes to the assistance of the agriculturist, and there is a parasite which destroys many of the larvae. The cocoon of one of these is shown in Fig. 220.
The moth occurs in Europe as well as in America, and it is possible that the insect has been imported from the Old World.