38 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



stubble, vines, leaves, or stumps, as may be, should be removed 

 from the field as soon after it is harvested as possible. As many 

 insects hibernate in such rubbish, this fact may sometimes be 

 utilized by thoroughly cleaning a field and leaving one or two 

 piles of rubbish in which many of the insects will assemble for 

 hibernation, and which may then be burned or otherwise destroyed. 

 Many cabbage insects hibernate under the old stumps and leaves 

 and will congregate in piles of them. The premises upon which 

 the fence rows are kept free from weeds and grass and the fields 

 are cleaned up and plowed as soon as possible after a crop is 

 removed, usually suffer much less from insect pests than those of 

 more easy-going neighbors. 



Burning. Such cleaning up of stubble and of wild vegetation 

 which furnishes food and shelter for insects may often be accom- 

 plished by burning. The burning over of grass land aids greatly 

 in the control of army worms, chinch-bugs, grasshoppers and 

 plant-lice, while the burning of the stubble will largely control 

 the wheat jointworm. Strawberry beds are sometimes burned 

 over in early spring to destroy the eggs of the root-louse, and 

 aphides on small grains may sometimes be killed out on small 

 areas by covering with straw and burning while the plants are 

 small. 



Plowing. Deep plowing and thorough harrowing are the most 

 effective means of ridding the soil of many pests of staple crops. 



Late Fall Plowing. Where the succession of crops permits, 

 plowing in the late fall is most advantageous, as it destroys the 

 insects while hibernating, although for some insects early fall 

 plowing and thorough harrowing during the fall are preferable. 

 Where plowing is not possible, thorough disking is often used 

 for the same purpose, as on alfalfa. As different insects pass the 

 winter in different stages this method does not affect all alike. 

 Some will be destroyed by having the cells in which they have 

 gone to pass the winter broken up, and being unable to construct 

 new cells they will be subjected to undue freezing and thawing 

 and excessive moisture, and will thus be killed by the weather. 

 Cutworms and the corn stalk-borer pass the winter in the soil 



