ASPARAGUS INSECTS 205 



should be made early in order to destroy the first brood of 

 beetles and larvae and thus give the plants a chance to make a 

 strong growth early in the season. 



The use of poultry for the destruction of the beetles was 

 advised by T. W. Harris nearly eighty years ago. This method 

 of control is still practiced with good results in some localities. 

 The asparagus field is surrounded with a chicken-wire fence, 

 and poultry are allowed the run of the field. Thirty or forty 

 hens are sufficient to keep a two-acre field practically free from 

 the beetles during the early part of the season. When the 

 plants grow up, some of the beetles will keep out of reach and 

 they may become abundant in the fall. It is rarely necessary, 

 however, to resort to spraying in fields in which poultry are 

 allowed to run. In the home garden the larvj^e may be de- 

 stroyed by dusting the plants with hydrated lime or land 

 plaster. 



References 



Fitch, 8th Kept. State Ent. N. Y., pp. 177-186. 1863. 



Lintner, 1st Rept. State Ent. N. Y., pp. 239-246. 1882. 



Board Agriculture [England] Leaflet 47. 1902. 



Chittenden, Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr., pp. 341-349. 1896. 



Johnston, Jour. Agr. Research, 4, pp. 303-314. 1915. Parasite. 



Sajo, Prometheus, 13, pp. 166-171. 1902. 



U. S. Farm. Bull. 837. 1917. 



The Twelve-Spotted Asparagus Beetle 

 Crioceris duodecimpunctata Linnaeus 



In this country, the twelve-spotted asparagus beetle (Fig. 

 131) was first noticed in 1881 in Maryland. It gradually 

 spread northward, reaching New Jersey in 1892, New York in 

 1893 and Canada in 1898. Its range now extends from ]\Iaine 

 to the Niagara peninsula in Canada and southward to Virginia. 



This beetle is most injurious early in the season when the 



