108 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



Control. As the eggs are usually laid in the ground in the 

 fall, deep plowing in late fall or early spring effectually buries 

 them too deep for the young nymphs to emerge. On alfalfa 

 land thorough disking is often used for the same purpose. 

 Thorough harrowing in the fall so as to pulverize the soil for 

 the depth of an inch will break up many of the egg masses, 

 though it is not as sure a control as plowing them under. 



When the young emerge, they may sometimes be destroyed 

 by burning over stubble, grass and rubbish where it is present 

 in sufficient quantites, or by augmenting it with straw, which 

 may be done to advantage on cold days when the nymphs are 

 congregated in such shelter. If the surface of the ground is 

 smooth and hard many may be killed by the use of a heavy 

 roller, particularly in the morning and evening, when they are 

 sluggish in their movements. Plowing a badly infested field 

 in a square, working toward the centre so as to drive the young 

 nymphs inward, will result in burying many of them in the furrows, 

 and the last may be burned or trapped in holes as described 

 below. Simple ditches 2 feet wdde and 2 feet deep form 

 effectual barriers for the young hoppers. The sides next to the 

 crop to be protected should be kept finely pulverized by hauling 

 a log or a brush of dead branches through the ditch. The ditch 

 may be made as described for chinch-bugs and is handled in 

 the same manner, the little hoppers drifting to the bottom of 

 the ditch, where they are killed by the heat on a hot day or 

 where they are caught in post-holes sunk every few feet in the 

 bottom of the ditch. This method may be used to advantage 

 in plots of corn, cotton, or garden truck which has already 

 become infested, by running furrows around the field and occa- 

 sionally through it, and then driving the young hoppers toward 

 them, which may be readily done by a number of children armed 

 with branches. Where ditches containing water are available 

 the young hoppers may be very effectively destroyed by oiling 

 the surface of the water with kerosene emulsion (p. 48) and 

 then driving them into the ditches, for even if they succeed in 

 crawling out they will succumb to the oil. 



