348 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



Where a few young plants are affected or before the leaves have 

 become badly curled, the aphids may be destroyed by spraying 

 with kerosene emulsion, containing 5 to 8 per cent kerosene, 

 whale-oil soap, 1 pound to 5 gallons of water, or tobacco extracts, 

 the latter having given best results in recent tests. Emulsion 

 must be carefully made or burning will result. The aphids must 

 be hit to destroy them, and it is necessary to use an underspray 

 nozzle (page 73), or to turn the vines over and then return them, 

 so that all the insects may be covered. After the foliage is well 

 curled it is practically impossible to reach the aphids by spraying. 



Fumigation with carbon bisulphide and tobacco preparations 

 has been extensively tested and recommended. It has not been 

 found practical on a large scale and there has been some tendency 

 to injure the plants in the process, both by the action of the 

 fumes and by the handling necessary to get the larger vines under 

 the fumigating frames. For this reason it is now considered of 

 doubtful value under any circumstances and is not recommended. 



If the vines are watched carefully and sprayed with " Black- 

 leaf 40 " at the first appearance of the plant-lice, the matter of 

 control will be found to be relatively simple, and this, along with 

 the cultural methods suggested, is the only treatment that will be 

 found practical for the growers generally. Other spray solutions, 

 or mixtures such as kerosene emulsion or whale-oil soap, may, 

 of course, be substituted for the tobacco with about the same 

 results. 



The Squash-bug * 



About the time the vines begin to run a wilted leaf is found 

 here and there which examination shows to be due to the common 

 brownish-black squash-bug. If search be made in early morning, 

 the bugs will usually be found secreted under clods of earth, or 

 whatever rubbish may be near the vines. They are about three- 

 quarters inch long, and too well-known to need other description. 



Life History. For the next month or six weeks the females 

 deposit their eggs, mostly on the under sides of the leaves. They 

 .are oval, about one-sixteenth inch long, laid in irregularly 

 shaped clusters. When newly laid they are pale yellow-brown, 



* Anasa tristis DeG. Family Coreidce. See Weed and Conradi, Bulletin 

 89, N. H. Agr. Exp. Sta.; F. H. Chittenden, Circular 39, Div. Ent., U. S. 

 Dept. Agi\ 



