Tarnished Plant-bug 



(b) TARNISHED PLANT-BUG 



The tarnished plant-bug is one of the most common of the true 

 bugs. It is found everywhere in North America from Mexico to Canada 

 and feeds upon almost any plant, either cultivated or wild. This bug 

 often attacks sugar beets. 



NATURE OF INJURY 



Only when tarnished plant bugs are abundant are there any visible 

 effects of their feeding. During the latter part of the season, however, 

 they often attack the young leaves at the center of the beet crown in 

 such numbers that the tips of these leaves wilt and finally become brown 

 and dry. Frequently the injured beets begin to make growth in the 

 axil of the outer leaves. This gives the beet top a bushy appearance. 



METHODS OF CONTROL 



Sugar beets are rarely injured to the extent where remedial measures 

 are profitably applied. 



Clean Culture 



Since the tarnished plant-bug spends the winter in hibernation 

 under the trash about fields, ditch banks and fence rows and breeds on 

 the weeds growing in these places during the early part of the season, 

 ^cleaning up all waste land by burning during winter or early spring will 

 destroy many of them. By preventing the weeds from growing about 

 fields the bugs are not so apt to be attracted to them as when these wild 

 plants are plentiful in and about them. 



Kerosene Emulsion 



In the case of small garden plots kerosene emulsion (Page 1 14) is 

 probably the best remedy where the nature of the crop attacked is such 

 that it can be used. 



Dr. F. H. Chittenden* states that where insecticides are used they 

 should be applied early in the morning while the dew is still on the plants 

 an,d the bugs are not very active. 



Hand Picking 



Hand picking may be resorted to where the areas covered by the 

 attack are small. It is obvious that this method is not suited to large 

 fields. 



DESCRIPTION 

 The Egg 



The eggs, which are about T x 5 of an inch long, are oval, several times 

 as long as thick and flared at one end so as to be somewhat bottle-shaped. 

 The color is a pale yellow. 



The Nymph 



The nymphs pass through four stages in the course of their devel- 

 opment. In the first stage they are about -^ of an inch in length and 

 of a yellowish or yellowish green color. 



*"A Brief Account of the Principal Insect Enemies of the Sugar Beet," Bulletin No. 43, Division 

 of Entomology. U. S. Department of Agriculture (1903). 



122 



