ENTOMOLOGY. 577 



The beetle is about a quarter of an inch in length, of a rusty buff or orange'' 

 color, with three black stripes on the wing covers. Harris recommends "brush- 

 ing them from the leaves into shallow vessels containing salt and water or vin- 

 egar." Lime and ashes strewed over the plants are said to destroy the larvte. 



The striped cucumber beetle is smaller than the potato beetle, and is of a 

 light yelloAv color, with three black stripes on the wing covers. Their larvae 

 probably feed in the ground, and it is the perfect beetle that injures and feeds ' 

 upon the leaves. There are two flea beetles that are very injurious to young 

 plants especially, eating innumerable holes in the tender first leaves, often kill- 

 ing the plants. One is of a black color, and the other is marked with two 

 wavy stripes of yellow on the wing covers. In regard to a similar insect iu 

 England, very destructive to turnips, Curtis says that the females lay two hun- 

 dred and fifty to three hundred eggs ; the larvte also feed upon the leaf; the 

 pupse remain in the ground all winter, and the perfect insects or beetles fly by 

 scent against the wind. As the same remedies will apply to the striped cucum- 

 ber beetle and both the flea beetles, we will proceed to enumerate them. Dr. 

 Harris mentions sprinkling the vines with a mixture of tobacco and red pepper, 

 soot, plaster, lime, plaster and superphosphate or guano, charcoal dust, Scotcli 

 snuff, wood or coal ashes ; nay, even common dry road dust has been recom- 

 mended to be sprinkled over the plants when wet ; also watering the plants 

 with a solution of one ounce Glauber salts to one quart of water, tobacco-water, 

 soapsuds of common and whale-oil soap, an infusion of elder, walnut leaves or 

 bops, tansy or wormwood tea, aloes and water, lime-water, or a strong infusion 

 of quassia bark, sprinkled over the plants with a watering-pot, will, it is said, 

 render the leaves so nauseous as to prevent the insects attacking them. When 

 the plants are placed singly in hills, like cucumbers, " pieces of paper or cloth 

 saturated with kerosene oil," or "sticks of wood, the upper parts of which have 

 been smeared with coal tar or oil, set in the ground near and around the plant," 

 are said to repel insects. 



Where many cucumbers are raised, it is also the practice to sow plenty of 

 seed at first, and then at four or five successive periods planting more seed, 

 close to those first planted, so as to supply the insects with abundance of 

 young food to feed upon, when the stronger gi-owing plants remain untouched. 

 But the best plan appears to be to protect the young hills with small boxes 

 one foot square and six or eight inches high, without bottoms, and with the top 

 covered with gauze or millinet, until the plants are large enough to need no 

 protection. Loose cotton batting pegged over the young plants is said to pro- • 

 tect them in a similar manner. Harris recommends sweeping with a bag-net. 

 This might be improved by forming the net somewhat like a fyke or fishing- 

 net, having the first (strong cotton or linen) bag fixed to a lioop somewhat 

 shallow and funnel-shaped, ending in a tubular case made of tin, having a hole 

 in which a cork can be placed, and a second bag, much longer, afiixed to the 

 same hoop, also ending in a small hole with a similar short tin tube, closed also 

 with a cork. When in use the inner cork is taken out, the net or bag is swept 

 or brushed over the plants, and all the insects caught must necessarily pass 

 into the second bag through the hole, Avhich may then be stopped with the 

 coik. When full the bottom cork can be taken out, and the enclosed insects 

 shaken into hot water without the danger of losing the most of them, which we 

 have frequently experienced Avhen sweeping with a single long sweep-net or 

 bag. It is true that Avhen used over grass the large bag would be partially 

 filled with grass seeds, but none of the insects captured would be able to escape. 

 Burning the land over in the fall is also recommended when the insects are very 

 numerous in cucumber fields. Hens and chickens destroy a great number. 

 Toads also eat them, and we found at least twenty striped cucumber beetles in 

 the stomach of one phoebe bird shot some time ago. 



In regard to an insect similar to our flea beetle in Eaglani attacking the 

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