138 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



near H'oulton were visited. All these fields were infested by the 

 tarnished plant-bugs, and in one field visited early in the morn- 

 ing before the insects had warmed up enough to be much on the 

 wing 40 or 50 plant-bugs to a single plant was not an unusual 

 number. This fact seems an alarming one, for though the 

 injury so late in the season may not be of great importance, 

 the hibernating adults, if they attack the early tender shoots in 

 the spring as is their habit on other plants, will cause much 

 deformed and stunted growth another season. The tarnished 

 plant-bug is not an easy foe to meet. Paris Green or other 

 stomach poisons are useless against an insect with sucking 

 mouth parts. Kerosene emulsion or other contact remedies are 

 not practical for a pest which is so easily startled to flight. At 

 the slightest disturbance the plant-bug is on the wing and in 

 condition to return to the plants when the danger is over. From 

 certain garden plants the plant-bug can readily be shaken onto 

 a cloth or into a pan containing kerosene, early in the morning 

 or on cold days when they are too sluggish to be easily alarmed. 

 Such a means would, of course, be impractical in a potato 

 field. There remains apparently but one vulnerable point, based 

 upon the fact that the tarnished plant-bug hibernates in the 

 adult condition among weeds or other rubbish. The custom of 

 potato raisers of raking up and burning the old vines in the fall 

 in order to have fields clear for fall plowing is therefore one of 

 the most effectual ways of destroying the shelter of these bugs. 

 If, in addition to clearing away the old vines, the weeds and 

 rubbish along the edges of the potato fields should be burned 

 on a cold day, great numbers of the tarnished plant-bugs would 

 be destroyed with comparatively little cost and time. If the 

 plant-bug continues to appear upon the potato vines, this means 

 •of combating it should be resorted to regularly each fall. 



Nectarophora solanifolii. In a land flowing with honey dew 

 as has been the whole State of Maine for several years past, 

 ■even the potato cannot hope to escape aphid attacks. A large 

 green species, Nectarophora solanifolii Ashm. has for 3 seasoiu^ 

 attacked the potato vines in the vicinity of Houlton and else- 

 where to an injurious extent. The colonies cluster thick on stem 

 and leaf, thousands to a plant, frequently wilting the stems and 

 drying the leaves. The worst of the attack comes between the 

 middle of August and the middle of September in time to 

 weaken the plant and thus afl^ect the growth of the tubers. The 



