10 THE RED SPIDER ON COTTON. 



other d(jmestic animals, insects, and birds. Stronjo; winds may serve 

 occasionally to transfer them from plant to plant. It is the writer's 

 firm belief, however, that the chief means of dispersion is the red 

 spider's own efforts. When once established in a field they may be 

 further distributed by farm hands and by stock while cultivation is 

 beiliir carried on. They also spread from plant to plant along the 

 interlacing branches, but traps specially prepared with tanglefoot 

 and placed in the field have proven that individuals commonly crawl 

 from plant to plant by way of the stalk and the ground. 



Since the red spider apparently uses no instinct or intelligence in 

 finding cotton plants, it follows that the pest must hit upon the cotton 

 stalks entirely by chance. The result of this haj^hazarcl manner of 

 migration must necessarily result often in the penetration of the 

 spiders far into the center of fields, thus giving rise to the mistaken 

 impression that they had hibernated at these points. 



Furthermore, as the likelihood of the discovery of cotton by the 

 spider is doubtless in proportion to the thickness of the " stand," it 

 should follow that the thick broadcasting of a narrow border strip 

 along the edge of a field adjoining a source of infestation would serve 

 as a trap crop to. intercept the majority of migrating spiders. This 

 strip should be plowed in as soon as there seems to be danger of a 

 general movement to the main field. (For a practical test of this idea, 

 see under Prevention, p. 17.) 



There is an old adage which has come to the writer's attention 

 several times the past season from the lips of old i)lanters : " When 

 the pokeweed turns red, look out for the cotton " rust.' " This ex- 

 pre&sion, said to have been employed in antebellum days, is of con- 

 siderable interest, since it contributes evidence tending to prove the 

 long existence of the cotton mite in the South, as well as the function 

 of the jDokeweed. 



TIME (H" APPEARAXf E AND DISAPPEARANCE. 



In 1011 the Avork of the pest on cotton first became noticeable about 

 June 1 at Batesburg. The past season (1912), however, red-spider 

 work was not evident on cotton until about the last of June at that 

 locality. From the answers to a hirge number of inquiries sent to 

 farmers throughout South Carolina, the average time of first appear- 

 ance in fields the past season is found to have been June 30. The lower 

 (sandy) section of the State averages one-half month earlier in the 

 pest's arrival than does the upper (clay) section — June 25 marking 

 the arrival time for the former and July 10 for the latter. Although 

 the pest does not become readily noticeable on cotton until some time 

 in June, it really establishes itself considerably earlier. ]\Iites have 

 occasionally been seen by the 1st of May on seedling plants not over 



