244 Ageicultukal Experiment Station, Iieaca, N. T. 



We believe that the evidence in favor of the effectiveness of kerosene 

 emulsion is sufficient to recommend it as a practicable method of com- 

 bating the pest, especially where large areas of an acre or more are 

 attacked. In brief, then, for large areas where some of the mechani- 

 cal means to be discussed would seem too costly, we would recommend 

 the application of kerosene emulsion (Riley- Hubbard formula) diluted 

 with not more than five parts of water to the shrubs, where the nymphs 

 will be found at work, not later than the last week in May. One 

 thorough application at this time, till it drips from the bushes, will not 

 injure the foliage or fruit and will, we believe, destroy a majority of 

 the nymphs, and thus protect the herbaceous plants from the attacks of 

 the adults. Do not wait until the adults appear before beginning to 

 spray ; watch the shrubs for the nymphs. 



By mechanical means. — Several methods have been suggested for 

 controlling this pest by mechanical means. These will now be dis- 

 cussed in detail under their respective headings, disposing first of two 

 that our observations have shown to be useless. 



1. Burning of garden rubbish. — This was the best method for 

 arresting the depredations of this pest that Dr. Lintner was prepared 

 to offer in 1882. He expected to destroy the adults in this 

 manner. There is no doubt that garden rubbish does harbor many 

 noxious insects and should, therefore, be burned But, as the 

 discussion of the life history of the pest has shown, the adult insect 

 occurs in the rubbish only as an already decaying corpse, if at all; for 

 they arrange for the perpetuation of the species by laying their eggs 

 and disappearing before August. The winter is passed in the egg 

 securely placed near the tip of the bush. Thus the burning of the rub- 



■ bish would not in the least affect the numbers of the pest the next year. 



2. Destroying the females in the spring before ovisposition.— Writ- 

 ing under the supposition that the insect hibernated in the adult state, 

 Dr. Lintner says: "As soon as the leaves of the currants, roses and 

 other early shrubs commence to unfold in the sjtring — in all gardens 

 where this insect abounded the previous year, watch should be kept for 

 its first coming abroad from its winter (juarters. Nearly all the indi- 

 viduals will be females, with their abdomen swollen with their burden 

 eggs ready to be deposited. Tiiey will be found sluggish in their 

 movements, and their conspicuous coloring and marking render them 

 easy to be seen. As an incentive to watchfulness now, it need only to 

 be borne in mind, that for every one captured and killed before ovipo- 

 sitioD, there will be at least a score less of indefatigable depredators 



