INSECTS ATTACKING GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



57 



Fig. 28. Squash-bug. 



Description and Life-history. — The adult is a familiar insect. 

 Its large size and disgusting odor make it conspicuous. It is 

 rusty black above and ochre-yellow be- 

 neath. It passes the winter in the adult 

 stage under boards, logs, or other cover- 

 ing. It does not appear in the squash 

 patch until late in the spring, often not 

 until June or July. The eggs are laid 

 on the under sides of the squash leaves in 

 small patches. The young bugs when 

 first hatched have a green body, with 

 head, thorax and antennae pink. Two 

 days after hatching, the body becomes 

 ash-gray, and the other portions black. 

 The young begin to suck the juices from 

 the leaves, and the plant becomes sickly. 



Remedies. — Hand-picking when the adult bugs first appear in 

 June, before the eggs are laid ; crushing the eggs found on the 

 under sides of the leaves; picking off the young, which when first 

 hatched feed together in bunches ; and trapping the bugs by lay- 

 ing pieces of board on the ground near the hills and examining 

 the under sides of them morning and evening, are the most effect- 

 ive remedies. Trimming off the lower leaves of the plants, and 

 laying them on the ground by the hills in place of the boards, is 

 recommended. Kerosene emulsion (see page 9) has been used 

 with good effect on the young bugs. Fertilizing helps the plants 

 to withstand injury. 



Kansas Notes. — A correspondent in La Blanche, Sherman 

 county, reported (June 5, 1891) that he had grown squashes for 

 seed for four yeai's and that his vines were first attacked in 1890. 

 The bugs did not appear until July. In 1891 they appeared in 

 May, and did much injury. 



HARLEQUIN OABBAO-E BUG. 



(Murgantia histrionica Hahn; Order, Hemiptera.) 

 Diagnosis. — Infesting cabbage, turnips, horse-radish, mustard, 

 etc. ; a flattened, oval bug about three-eighths of an inch long, 

 with prominent black and orange- red markings, sucking the 



