EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 195 



soaked in arseuic-water, to which has been added a little salt, should 

 prove eflScient. Of course it is well to avoid planting potatoes in ground 

 stocked with the crickets. 

 Wire-worms (see Insects affecting Sweet-corn). 



INSECTS AFFECTING THE TOPS. 



Potato Lice. 



Several species of plant-lice attack the potato and from time to time 

 we hear from them in Michigan. Little is known regarding their life- 

 histories, further than the fact that they sometimes appear in numbers 

 to the serious detriment of the plants. 



REMEDIES. 



Some of the contact insecticides, such as kerosene-emulsion, tobacco- 

 water or dilute whale-oil soap, should be applied in the form of a spray, 

 always bearing in mind that such insecticides work by contact and that 

 each insect must be hit to be killed. 



Pale Striped Flea-beetle (see Insects affecting the Beet). • 



L ~^" Old-fashioned Potato-beetle (Epicauta vittata). 



Before the advent of the Colorado potato-beetle, the vines used to 

 suffer from the attacks of a striped blister-beetle, now known to the 

 older potato raisers as the old-fashioned potato-beetle. Since the arsen- 

 ites have come into such general use, this creature has fared badly, 

 many of them being killed unwittingly together with the Colorado 

 beetles. For the life-history and methods of control of this insect, see 

 Insects of the Beet. 



Tomato Stalk-borer (see Insects affecting Tomato). 



Potato Flea-beetle {Epitrix ciicumeris) . 



Besides the Colorado beetle, one often meets the potato flea-beetle, 

 sometimes called the potato-flea. Like most of the flea-beetles, it is a 

 tiny creature which jumps with surprising power and suddenness. 



These little beetles riddle the leaves 

 of the potato, tomato, egg-plant and 

 other plants with small round holes. 

 The beetles are very small, about one- 

 tenth of an inch in length, and black 

 in color. The larvae are said to tun- 

 nel in the roots of various plants and 

 weeds, notably those of the nightshade 

 or potato family, transforming to 

 pupae in the soil and later emerging 



as adults. There are two or more gen- 

 Fig. 45.— Potato flea-beetle. enlarged. After erations each year, the adults of the 



Chittenden, Bui. 19, N. Ser. Bureau of ln<5t lii-nofl nn<s<siTio- flip ririnfpr omnnrr 

 Entomology U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. i'^^) OlOOQ passing Hie Winter amOUg 



fallen leaves and other rubbish. 



REMEDIES. 



Clean culture destroys the winter quarters of this and many other 

 pests. Kake up and burn all rubbish late in the fall during a cold spell. 



