Potato Bugs

[bricker]

I was watching a show on the tv yesterday, and there was a guy planting potatoes. I don't know why, but it reminded me of when I was a small child on the farm. Dad would give us kids a small can with about a quarter inch of gasoline in it. It was our job to go up and down the rows of potatoes and knock the bugs from the leaves of the plant, with a stick, into the cans. I don't think there were "good" bugs back then because if it was on the plant in went into the can. I guess I can add "exterminator" to my list of jobs.
Strange things that pop into your head from out of nowhere.

 

[eveled]

What kid wouldn't enjoy that job?

 

[crstrode]

What kid wouldn't enjoy that job?

60 years ago my Dad's method was to give me two rocks. I'd find the potato bugs and squish 'em. He'd never trust me with flammable liquids.

 

[rwsmith]

EVERYBODY.....

Everybody pulls their weight on a farm. "While Ma and your sister make dinner, I'm going to plow that field while your bother goes to pick up parts in town. Here, you take this can and knock potato bugs into it. If you don't do a good job, we'll starve this winter."

 

[Malamute]

A neighbor lady called one time to come help her, she had some evil looking horned tomato worms getting her tomatoes. I had her get her Red Ryder and shot a few off, and showed her how to aim and hold at close range, she took it from there. She about upchucked when I shot the first couple, but got over it.

 

[625-7]

Motor oil drained from the 1954 210 in a gerber baby food jar for me. Garden slightly supplemented our diet but kept boys busy and out of trouble during the summer months

 

[ExcitableBoy]

The adult bugs are the easy part. Ya gotta check the underside of the leaves for clusters of bright yellow eggs that they lay, and pluck the whole leaf. Some days I'd fill two coffee cans. A total pain in July and August.

I was the designated garden pest eradicator when I was a kid, but it was more fun to plink gophers and birds from the tomatoes and raspberries with a .22, though. And it paid off in cash, too, at $.10 per carcass! I got to be a dead shot in a hurry with an old Winchester 67 single-shot. After collecting bounty for a few weeks, I'd ride my bike 5 miles into town and buy a mess of LR for resupply at half a buck for 50 rounds. The varmints also kept me in ammo for squirrel and rabbit hunting during fall and winter.

 

[pmanton]

These ugly suckers give me the creeps.