ORCHARD, GARDEN, AND FIELD INSECTS 143 



However friendly and useful these " cows " may be to the 

 ant, they are enemies to man. You may sometimes find 

 your plant actually covered with these minute creatures. 



Treatment. These are sucking insects. Poisons there- 

 fore do not avail. They may be killed by spraying with 

 kerosene emulsion. 



The Squash Bug does its greatest damage to young 

 plants. To such its attack is often fatal. On larger 

 plants single leaves may die. This 

 insect is a serious enemy to a crop, and 

 is particularly difficult to get rid of, 

 since it belongs to the class of sucking 

 insects, not to the biting insects. For 

 this reason poisons are useless. 



Treatment. About 

 the only practicable 

 remedy is to pick these 

 insects by hand. We 

 can, however, protect 

 our young plants by 

 small nettings, and thus 

 tide them over the most 

 dangerous period of 



their lives. The bugs greatly prefer the squash as food. 

 You can, therefore, dimmish their attack on your melons, 

 cucumbers, etc., by planting among the melons an occa- 

 sional squash plant as a "trap plant." Hand picking will 

 be easier on a few trap plants than over the whole field. 

 A small board laid beside the young plant often furnishes 

 night shelter for the bugs. The bugs collected under the 

 board may easily be killed every morning. 



FIG. 136. A CHEAP SPRAYING OUTFIT 



