146 REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST OF 



As suggested last year, the curculio prefers plums to apples ; but in the 

 absence of the plums they will attack most ruinously the apples. Apples 

 seriously stung by the curculio become so gnarled and deformed as to be 

 wholly worthless. Thus it becomes imperative to the best success that plum 

 trees be set among the trees of the apple orchard. Then we have to spray 

 the apple trees but once to subdue the codling moth, the several leaf-rollers, 

 the canker worm and tent caterpillars, while we can jar the plum trees, or 

 treat them two or three times with the arsenites or carbolized plaster, as 

 circumstances seem to recommend. The plums will save the apples, and 

 with pains to repel the curculio, may give as good returns as any product of 

 the farm. I believe the same course may be profitably pursued in the 

 cherry orchard. I believe the presence of abundant plum trees will save the 

 cherry trees from the attack of the curculio, and so we shall get cherries — if 

 we have enough to more than supply the birds — with no effort to repel inju- 

 rious insects from the cherries themselves. 



THE FLEA BEETLES. 



In 1888 portions of New Jersey, New York and adjacent States were 

 seriously injured by the depredations of the cucumber flea beetle, Crepidodera 

 cucumeris Harr. These insects attacked the potatoes. 



This year we resolved to investigate all the flea beetles in our vicinity in 

 hopes to find good practical remedies for some or all of them. We were 

 well supplied with material, as the grape flea beetle, Haltica chalybea Illig., 

 the striped flea beetle, Phyllotreta vitata Fab., no less than the cucumber 

 flea beetle, Crepidodera cucumeris, were each and all abundant in our region. 

 The first worked only on the grape, which it injures seriously, both while 

 in the larval and mature stage. As larvge they feed on the foliage, as imago, 

 or mature beetles, they work early in the spring, eating the buds. The 

 striped flea beetles work on several plants, but worst on radishes and cab- 

 bages, while the third works on many plants, but most on potatoes, tomatoes 

 and cucumbers. We tried many remedies, such as carbolized plaster, kero- 

 sene and soap mixture, dilute carbolic acid, gas lime, tobacco decoction, 

 buhach, hellebore, ashes, lime, tobacco dust, London purple, ashes and 

 London purple, turpentine and plaster, etc., etc. Few of all these sub- 

 stances seemed to work with any satisfaction. London purple and water, 

 one pound of the poison to two hundred gallons of water, is quick death to 

 the grape flea beetles, and is a cheap and satisfactory remedy for the mature 

 beetles that attack the buds of the grape in early May. The same remedy, 

 and also the kerosene and soap mixture, are both sure destruction to the 

 larva of this insect which later in the season eats the grape foliage. I find 

 the following to be the best compound to use in this warfare : One quart 

 soft soap or one-fourth pound hard soap, two quarts of hot soft water and 

 one pint kerosene oil. Stir this thoroughly till all mix permanently, then 

 add water till the kerosene forms only one-fifteenth part of the whole. The 

 best way to stir is to use a force pump and pump the liquid back into the 

 the vessel containing it. This soon mixes it so that the oil will not rise to 

 the top upon standing. 



For the other two insects we only found two remedies that seemed at all 

 satisfactory. Ashes dusted onto the affected plants seemed to repel the 

 insects and save the plants. Yet success in this case required that the plants 



