612 Report op the Entomologists op thh 



Usually in gardening sections tlie land is plowed in the fall, then 

 replowed in the spring. This method furnishes the best possible 

 protection to the winter form of the squash-borers, burying them 

 deep enough so that freezing and thawing does not injure them, 

 then turning them up to the warm sun in the spring. As a re- 

 sult, they issue earlier than they would if left buried even four 

 inches deep. Where they issue early they attack the squash vines 

 before the latter commence to run. 



Onion Thrips. 



This pest {Thrips tabid Lindemann) was described and figured 

 in Bulletin No. 83, also in the Thirteenth Annual Report of the 

 New York Agricultural Experiment Station, as being destructive 

 to cabbage plants on Long Island. 



During the past year it has done some damage to cabbage and 

 cauliflower in seed beds, but it has been most destructive to the 

 onion crop on Long Island. 



On July 15th, Mr. Geo. W. Hallock, of Orient, N. Y., wrote that 

 some insect was ruining the onion crop. The fields were in 

 spected on the following day. It was evident that some of the 

 fields were entirely ruined by this pest. The thrips were scat- 

 tered over the remaining fields to such an extent that in order 

 to make any headway against them it would be necessary to 

 spray all of the fields. As the majority of the onions were nearly 

 mature, such a procedure was not warranted. It was found that 

 the thrips had first attacked the set-onions. After the latter 

 were mature, they had migrated to the seed-onions. 



The latter fact should be taken advantage of in fighting this 

 pest. By planting a few rows of early set-onions around the 

 margins of each fi(^id and keeping them thoroughly sprayed 

 throughout the onion season this pest can be kept within bounds. 

 The trap onions should be sprayed at least once each week with 

 kerosene emulsion. The stock emulsion of kerosene diluted with 

 nine parts of water will be strong enough to use on onions. This 

 onion-thriijs feeds on a great variety of plants and is constantly 

 migrating into the onion fields from adjoining fields and weed 



