6 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 668. 
other fertilizer if necessary, will also aid the plants to withstand 
borer attack. When vines are so badly infested as to be incapable 
of bearing fruit they usually die at once, and they should. then be 
promptly taken out and burned. The old vines should also be 
destroyed as soon as the crop is made. 
CUTTING OUT THE BORERS. 
The old-time remedy of cutting the borers out of the vines, although 
laborious, is useful, and about the only method open for employment 
after they have entered the vines. As several individuals often infest 
a single vine, it is best to cut longitudinally, so as not to sever the vine 
from the root stalk. If the wound made by cutting be afterwards 
covered with moist soil it will assist it to heal. The location of the 
borer in the vine can be readily detected by the accumulation of its 
yellow ‘‘frass’’ or excrement at the point where it is working, and 
which is kept open for the extrusion of this matter. 
CAPTURING THE MOTHS. 
This species may be held in partial subjection by keeping a sharp 
lookout for the parent moths, which are readily seen and not diffi- 
cult of capture toward dusk or in the cool of the morning, when they 
are comparatively inactive. The female may then be easily caught, 
just as she alights on a vine for oviposition. Several persons, includ- 
ing the writer, can vouch for this statement. 
SUMMARY. 
If the grower would make certain of securing a good crop in locali- 
ties where this and other enemies of the squash occur in their most 
destructive abundance, it will be necessary for protection against 
this borer to observe most of the following precautions, and, if pos- 
sible, secure the cooperation of his neighbors in their observance: 
(1) Not to plant in or near infested ground. 
(2) To plant early varieties for the protection of late squashes. 
(3) To harrow infested fields lightly in fall and plow deeply in 
spring, to prevent the moths from issuing. 
(4) To encourage the growth of secondary roots by covering the 
stems with earth. 
(5) To destroy dead vines and old plants as soon as the crop is 
made. 
(6) To keep the plants in vigorous condition, free from other 
insects and disease. 
(7) To cut out such borers as may succeed in entering the vines in 
spite of the employment of other remedial measures. 
(8) The capture of the moths before egg deposition is advisable. 
WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE ; 1915 
