THE SQUASH-VINE BORER : REMEDIES AND PREVENTIVES. 63 



In New Jersey the insect seems to abound, and extensive injuries are 

 reported. A gentleman from Hackensack writes: "I have taken over 

 a hundred of the l:)orers from one squash vine in the past few days [in 

 August], finding them in different parts, from the roots to the end of 

 the vines." 



Although reported occasionally as a borer in pumpkin vines, it is not 

 known as the cause of serious harm to this plant. It also occurs in 

 melon vines. 



Remedies and Preventives. 



Until the life -history of this species has been worked out with some 

 degree of completeness — which can only follow many careful observa- 

 tions upon the habits and the several stages and conditions of the insect 

 — can we be prepared to announce the best method of preventing its rav- 

 ages. For the present, therefore, we must be content with giving such 

 measures as promise material mitigation. Among those to be referred 

 to, one or more, if carefully employed, will in all probability be found 

 effectual in bringing the pest under control, so that entire crops of 

 squashes will not be hereafter completely cut off; and complaints like 

 the following (coming from Ulster county, N-. Y.), need not be repeated: 

 " I can fight off the striped bugs, but these little subterranean rascals 

 are too much for me. I have frequently changed the location of my 

 squash plot, and though occasionally managing to raise a small crop 

 have oftener failed" {Country Gentleman, March 5, 1874, page 151)- 



First in order, those methods may properly be considered which may 

 be employed at any time after the removal of a badly infested crop, 

 with a view of preventing the recurrence of the attack the following 

 year. 



Crushing the larvce by ploioing, etc. — In the autumn, the entire 

 field in which the borers have abounded should be plowed and harrowed 

 two or three times. Such thorough working of the ground would crush 

 the cocoons and their inclosed larvse thrown up by the plow. It is be- 

 lieved that very few could by any possibility escape injury sufficient to 

 prevent their final development. The depth of the plowing need not 

 exceed the depth to which the larvae bury themselves beneath the sur- 

 face for pupation (probably not more than six inches ordinarily, but to 

 be definitely ascertained hereafter). 



Gas-lime, kerosene, etc. — A liberal distribution of fresh gas-lime, 

 when procurable, after the removal of the crop, would kill the larvse 

 within the cocoons. Sprinkling the ground with kerosene oil before a 

 heavy rain to carry it into the soil, might be as efficient as gas-lime. If 

 mixed with soapsuds it might perhaps do quite as well. An infested 

 crop should not be followed by another upon the same ground. A few 



