140 VEGETABLE GARDENING 



externally. In the seed the larva does not touch the germ, 

 though it may eat up a large part of the starch. The larva 

 undergoes its changes in the seed, completing which the 

 beetle emerges through quite a large hole in the shell of the 

 seed. While seed that is infested may germinate, it forms 

 only weak plants that are very sure to fail to mature a full 

 crop. Similar insects also attack corn. There is another 

 species that breeds in stored grain, peas, and beans, etc., 

 but it is not common. 



Remedies. These insects are generally somewhat local 

 in range. Whenever any locality is infested the date of 

 planting should be delayed two weeks, by which means the 

 beetles fail to find the crop ready when they are ready to 

 lay their eggs. The trouble generally comes from sowing 

 infested seeds. These may be separated out by throwing 

 the seed into water, when the good will sink, but those 

 infested will float. Another method is to treat the seed 

 with carbon bisulphide, as recommended under that head. 

 If the seed is kept over two years the beetles will have come 

 out. The species that breeds in the grain is most easily 

 destroyed and kept out of the seed by using bisulphide of 

 carbon, as recommended. 



Squash Vine Borer (Aegeria cucurbitae). The squash 

 vine borer is the larva of a moth. The eggs are laid on the 

 stems of the young plants near the roots of cucumber, 

 squash, and melon vines. The larvae on hatching burrow 

 into the stem and follow along the center, which causes the 

 plants to wilt and finally to die. The full-grown borer 

 measures about one inch in length and has a whitish body 

 with a brown head. The borers leave the stem the latter 

 part of the summer and winter over near the surface of the 

 ground in cocoons composed partly of earth. The moth 

 emerges the following spring. 



