390 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



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 

 arc oval, about one-sixteenth inch long, laid in irregularly 

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

 but this soon grows darker, so that the stage of their development 



may be told by the color. 

 In from six to fifteen days, 

 depending upon the tem- 

 perature, the eggs hatch. 

 The young nymphs "are 

 brilliantly colored, the an- 

 tcimsc and legs being bright 

 crimson, the head and an- 

 terior thorax a lighter crim- 

 son, and the posterior thorax 

 and abdomen a bright green, 

 but in a little while the 

 crimson changes to a jet 

 black. The young bugs re- 

 main near each other, suck- 

 ing the juices from the 

 foliage and soon causing the 

 leaves to wither. During 

 their growth, which requires 



four to five weeks, they moult some five times. The adult bugs 

 appear in August, but in the North they neither mate nor lay eggs 

 that season, but feed until frosts blacken the leaves, when they dis- 

 appear into winter quarters, hibernating along the edge of wood- 

 lands, beneath leaves, under logs, boards or whatever shelter 

 may be avai'able. In the South there are probably two or three 

 broods a year according to the latitude. 



Control. The eggs are easily seen and should be picked off 

 and destroyed. The adults cannot be killed by insecticides, but 



FIG. 280. Eggs of the squash-bug en- 

 larged. (Photo by R. I. Smith.) 



