328 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



have gotten a taste, and provided we apply often enough to keep the plants 

 well covered. Where one has only a few plants, a very sure protection is 

 to cover them as soon as the beetles appear, with a box or frame that is 

 covered with netting, so as to exclude them from the plants but admit the 

 sunlight. 



SQUASH VINE BORER (Melittia ceto Westw.). 



Many reports of injury to the squash by the borer have reached us from 

 various parts of the state. No doubt quite a percentage of this work is due 

 to the disease spoken of under the striped cucumber beetle, yet we know 

 that the borer is a dreaded pest in many localities around us. The borer 

 is closely related to the peach-tree borer and works in the base of the stem 

 and top of the root so that it and its work can readily be found if a plant 

 dies and the borer has been the cause of its death. Q 



Remedies. — If the larva is once inside the plant there is nothing that 

 will save it except making a longitudinal cut in the stem and digging the 

 larva out The moth lays its eggs at the base of the plant soon after it is 

 up, or at least before it has run far. Some have had good success in spray- 

 ing the stems occasionally with Paris green at this time. The moth very 

 often deposits her eggs on the under or protected side of the plant, so care 

 must be used to apply the poison there also. Lime should be used as the 

 vines are easily injured by the arsenites. The best remedy, so far as I 

 know, is a repellant consisting of cobs, rags, or sticks dipped in coal tar 

 every few days and placed in a little row around the hills. The moth dis- 

 likes the odor and will not deposit her eggs on the surrounded plants. 

 Planting summer squashes among the late varieties and then burning the 

 early plants is a good protection for the late plants. No borers have yet 

 been found in the state to my knowledge, but many supposed cases have 

 proven to be the'jdisease communicated by the striped cucumber Beetle. 

 For treatment of this disease, see " Striped Cucumber Beetle." 



SQUASH BUG. (Anasa trisiis De G.). 



To growers of the squash this large brown stink-bug is far 

 from a welcome guest. It winters over as an adult under 

 boards and in protected places, and with a hungry longing it 

 watches for the appearance through the ground of the squash 

 vines, that it may again feed and be satisfied. While suck- 

 ing the sap it breeds extensively on the plants, as can be read- 

 ily seen by the clusters of reddish -brown eggs on the leaves 

 Fig 48 — ^^^ later by the young bugs. 

 Sqnaeh Bng. Remedy. — This is one of the few insects for which we can 

 suggest no better remedy than catching by hand and killing. 

 We can kill the eggs and young bugs with kerosene emulsion, but it is the 

 old bugs early in the season that do the most harm, and these are affected 

 but slightly by this remedy. Hot water will kill the plants much quicker 

 than the bugs. It has been proven in many cases that much of the injury 

 attributed to the bug has really been caused by some one of the hidden 

 squash insects already spoken of or the squash vine disease. Care should 

 therefore be taken to be sure what is doing the harm before treating. 



