112 AMERICAN GRAPE GROWING 



The Grape-vine Fidia, a small beetle, ashy-gray, some- 

 times comes in swarms, preying on the foliage, riddling 

 it completely, and even attacking the young fruit. 

 Hand-shaking, as above, in the morning, is also the best 

 treatment for these, as well as for the Grape Curculio. 



The Thrip, a small, three-cornered, whitish insect, has 

 sometimes become very troublesome, as they eat the 

 under side of the leaves of some varieties, especially of 

 the CBstivalis class, when the leaf will show rusty specks 

 on the surface, and eventually drop. Carrying lighted 

 torches through the vineyard at night, and beating the 

 vines to disturb them, is one of the best remedies, as 

 they will fly into the flames. They are a great annoy- 

 ance and should be destroyed in time, before they get too 

 numerous, as they will defoliate whole vineyards. It is 

 strange that they have almost entirely disappeared in our 

 Missouri vineyards, where they were so numerous formerly, 

 and are now very annoying in the vineyards on Crooked 

 Lake, New York, where I saw them in great abundance. 



The Aphis, or PJant Louse, covers the young shoots 

 of the vines occasionally, sucking their juice. The best 

 remedy is taking off the shoot, and crushing them under 

 foot. 



The Grape-vine Sphinx is a large, green worm, with 

 black dots. It is very voracious, but can easily be found 

 and destroyed. The worms do a great deal of mischief, 

 but fortunately are not very numerous. The best remedy 

 against them, and all other caterpillars, is hand picking. 



The Rocky Mountain Locust, or Grasshopper, as it is 

 generally called, is one of the most destructive insects 

 in those districts invaded by it, and ruined the crops 

 of nearly two seasons in some sections in 1875. Fortu- 

 nately its range is very limited, and it appears but rarely. 

 But when once it gets into a vineyard, not a green leaf 

 or shoot is left, and if this occurs as late as the first of 



