4 SOME INSECTS INJURIOUS TO TRUCK CROPS. 



puparia being present under the mined outer skin. In the neighbor- 

 hood of Concord, a very important asparagus-growing region where 

 hundreds of acres are devoted to this crop, the infestation was practi- 

 cally absolute, the insect being found even as abundantly as the common 

 asparagus beetle, being present wherever rust was found, as also w^here 

 no rust was present. The specimens submitted were about the average 

 as regards the degree of infestation, some plants showing injury 7 

 inches below the surface. 



Severe injury was reported on the farms of Mr. Frank Wheeler and 

 Mr. Charles W. Prescott, at Concord, Mass. The growers in that 

 region had never noticed this insect until Mr. Shamel's examination 

 showed that its injuries were extensive. Later Mr. Shamel reported 

 finding infestation in every field and patch of asparagus which he 

 visited in Massachusetts and Connecticut, particularl}^ at Sufiield, 

 Granby , and Hartford, Conn. , and he believed attack to be widespread. 



October 26, 1906, Mr. Ralph E. Smith wrote, by request, that the 

 conditions under which this asparagus miner was found in abundance 

 in the yellow stalks of asparagus in California, as reported by him in 

 an article on Asparagus Rust Control,'' had prevailed for two or three 

 years. The insect was al wa3^s very abundant at the base of these yellow, 

 dying stalks, although the injury was attributed to the "centipede," 

 reported as wire worms on a previous occasion.* 



BEMEDIAL MEASURES. 



Witn our present knowledge of the life economy of this species, two 

 methods of control suggest themselves as of greatest value, and it may 

 be that the}'^ will prove all that is necessary under ordinary conditions. 



(1) In spring permit a few volunteer asparagus plants to grow as a 

 trap crop, to lure the fly from the main crop or the cutting beds for 

 the deposition of her eggs. After this has been accomplished the trap 

 crop should be destroyed by pulling the infested plants and burning 

 them with their contained puparia. The time to pull the plants will 

 vary according to locality and somewhat according to season also. 

 The second and third week in June would be about the right time in 

 and near the District of Columbia. On Long Island this work should 

 be done a week or two later. In the northernmost range of this 

 insect — for example, in Massachusetts — the last of June and the first 

 of July would probably be a suitable time. 



(2) The second generation can be destroyed in like manner by pull- 

 ing old infested asparagus stalks as soon as attack becomes manifest 

 and promptly burning them also. 



aBul. 172, Univ. Cal. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. 21; ^Bul. 165, 1. c. 



