198 STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



INSECTS AFFECTING RHUBARB. 



Tomato Stalk-borer (see Insects affecting Tomato). 



Rhubarb Snout-beetle (Lixus concavus). 



Rhubarb is usually free from insect pests, there is, however, a long, 

 slender snout-beetle, which is to be found early in the spring and late 

 in the fall, resting on the plants. It is dark grey in color and covered 

 with a rust-colored powder that rubs off easily. This beetle is the 

 parent of the white, grub-like borer that tunnels in the leaf and flower- 

 stalks, and the eggs of which are laid in small cavities cut in the tissue 

 of the plant. It is said that the practice of removing the old leaves 

 regularly will take care of the pest, as the borers will in this way be 

 destrojed just as fast as they come, and the new stalks will be found 

 to be free after a little time. The insect also feeds on dock, and for 

 this reason, it is well to destroy all the docks in the- vicinity of the 

 rhubarb plants. 



INSECTS AFFECTING THE SQUASH. 



INSECTS AFFECTING THE ROOTS. 

 Squash-vine Borer {Melittia ceto). 



It often happens that squash-vines suddenly wilt, just as they are 

 getting a nice start. This imiy be due to one of several causes, some- 

 times a bacterial disease is the cause and sometimes one of the fungus 

 diseases, often, however, one finds on examination that there is a grub- 

 like borer in the hollow stem, and that a tunnel has been gnawed down 

 into the roots. Here the borer dwells, sometimes above and at others 

 below the level of the soil. When full-grown, this grub leaves the tunnel 

 and pupuates nearby in the soil. In the following spring the adult 

 appears. The adult is a very pretty insect belonging to the family of 

 moths known as clear-wings, because the wings of many of its members 

 are partially transparent. The moth of the squash-borer measures about 

 one and one-fourth inches across the extended wings, from tip to tip, the 

 front-wings being green and the hind-wings clear. The body is reddish 

 except for the basal part which is green like the front-wings. The hind- 

 legs each bear a fringe of long hairs. The species is said to be single 

 brooded in this part of the country. Further south it is double-brooded. 



REMEDIES. 



The remedies for this pest are three in number. The results are most 

 satisfactory when all three are used together. 



Trap plants. — Fortunately the borer works in summer squash as well 

 as in the winter varieties, the summer-squash planted between the rows 

 of winter-squash, will attract the majority of the borers. Later, when 



