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=The Colorado potato beetle=, or "potato bug," sometimes injures tomatoes, but not as a rule when potatoes are available. This suggests the use of potatoes as a trap crop, planted in about three rows completely around the field of tomatoes. The arsenicals used in the same proportion as for flea-beetles will destroy the potato beetle.
Crop rotation is advisable where this can be conveniently practiced, and such plants as cabbage, radish and the like, onions, beets, asparagus and celery are suggested as alternates. When the plants are sprayed with arsenicals for other insects this will operate to a certain extent against the stalk-borer.
If this precaution has not been observed a spray of either of these arsenicals used in the proportion specified will suffice, repeating if the insects continue on the plants. In the preparation of the spray a pound of fresh lime to each pound of the arsenical should be added; or, better yet, Bordeaux mixture should be employed as a diluent instead of water.
Sweet corn planted about the field before the tomatoes are set will serve as a lure for the parent moths to deposit their eggs, corn and cotton being favorite foods of this species and preferred to tomatoes. The fruit worm feeds to a certain extent on the foliage before penetrating the fruit, and it is possible to keep it in subjection by spraying with arsenicals as advised for the flea-beetles.
It is suggested that arsenate of lead, being more adhesive than other arsenicals, should be used for the first sprayings, beginning when the fruit commences to form, repeating once or twice as found necessary, and making a last spraying with Paris green within a few days of ripening.
=The tomato worms=, of which there are two common species closely resembling each other, are often abundant and destructive on tomato foliage, particularly southward. The arsenicals will kill them, or they can be held in check by hand-picking, a little experience enabling one to detect their presence readily. Turkeys are utilized in destroying these worms in the South.
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