INTRODUCTION. 6 



have ill mind, also, the young form of certain orders of insects 

 which, as adults, are really sucking insects. 



When we come to consider remedies, it is evident at once that 

 remedies whose effectiveness consists in the fact that the foliage 

 which is eaten by the insects is poisoned by being covered with a 

 coating of some arsenical mixture cannot be used against sucking 

 insects who get their food from the inside of the leaves. And it 

 is evident that barriers around tree trunks, or around plats of 

 ground, which might surely prevent the progress of the wingless 

 caterpillars and worms, would not at all prevent the winged adult 

 forms (the moths, etc.) of the insects — which adult forms lay the 

 eggs from which the caterpillars are hatched — from getting into 

 the tree tops, or into the plats of ground. 



It is important to discover at what time in an insect's life reme- 

 dies may be best applied; different remedies will be demanded by 

 the different life-stages of the same insect. The life-stages of in- 

 sects should be pretty fairly understood by anyone who hopes to 

 carry on an intelligently-directed warfare with the insect pests of 

 his farm or garden. First, there is the egg — deposited usually on 

 the food-plant of the insect, so that the newly-hatched larvae or 

 caterpillars may run no risk of starving while hunting for their 

 proper food. Often the insect may be veritably nipped in the bud, 

 if we may become acquainted with its favorite place of oviposition, 

 and destroy the eggs. Or, by protecting the plant, we may pre- 

 vent the laying of eggs on it. ( See recommendations for Spring 

 Canker-worm.) 



The second stage is, in insects which undergo a complete meta- 

 morphosis, the worm-like, caterpillar, grub or maggot stage, the 

 young of various insects being thus variously termed. By ento- 

 mologists this is called the larval stage, and the young, whether 

 grub or maggot or caterpillar, is called the larva. This term will 

 be used frequently in the succeeding pages, and its meaning should 

 be remembered. In this stage most insect injury is done. The 

 larvse of moths and butterflies are the voracious caterpillars, as 

 those of the Codlin Moth, the Tomato- worm, theWheat-head Army- 

 worm, the Garden Web-worm, the Fall Army-worm, the Spring 

 Canker-worm, the Fall Web-worm, the Bag-worm, the Maple- 

 worm, the Walnut-moth Worm, the Tussock-moth Worm, and 

 the Clothes-moth Worm. The adult or moth forms of these in- 

 sects are absolutely innoxious so far as devouring plant tissue 



