BEAN PESTS 



579 



plain, broad, white band along the 

 margins of these wings and an ocherous 

 band with brown spots across the inner 

 fourth. This band is especially conspicu- 

 ous. The hind wings are light gray. The 

 moths are small, scarcely more than one- 

 half inch long. They are exceedingly 

 active on wing and foot. The pupa is 

 rich brown and usually enclosed in a 

 thin white cocoon. The young larvae are 

 white or light green. When full grown 

 they are white or distinctly reddish above 

 and greenish beneath. The head is dark 

 as is also the prothoracic plate and the 

 legs. They average about one inch in 

 length. When disturbed they wriggle 

 violently. 



Life Historj- 



The writer has never seen the eggs so 

 is unable to state where they are de- 

 posited, but judging from the observance 

 of their work they are probably laid 

 upon the bean plants and the pods as soon 

 as they are formed. As soon as hatched 

 the young caterpillars bore through the 

 pods and begin feeding upon the beans 

 inside, all of which are usually gnawed 

 into or destroyed before fully developed. 

 When ready to pupate the larvae either 

 do so in the pod or select some other 

 place. Very often they crawl into the 

 ground and pupate under clods or any 

 convenient shelter. As a protection a thin 

 white cocoon is spun. In this stage some 

 of the insects hibernate though many ap- 

 pear as adults in late summer and fall. 

 There is but one brood a year. The adults 

 appear in the spring about May. 



Distribution 



Apparently across the southern half of 

 the United States and in Europe. 



Food Plants 



The beans in the pods of the small bush 

 lima beans are the favorite food for this 

 moth, though it occasionally attacks those 

 of the large limas. 



Control 



Early beans are the ones suffering from 

 the attacks of the caterpillars, though the 

 later plantings do not escape. As the 

 bush lima is usually the only crop at- 



tacked it would be well to plant the large 

 and later varieties instead. 



E. O. EssiG 

 Red Spider. See Apple Pests. 



Seed Corn Maggot 



Pegomya fusciceps 



One of the causes of failure of germi- 

 nation of seeds in the ground is the seed 

 corn maggot, otherwise known as the 

 bean maggot. It is said to attack the 

 seed of peas, corn and beans, and also to 

 work on a varied list of plants including 

 pumpkin, cotton, orange, artichoke, straw- 

 berry, cabbage, beets, onion, mustard and 

 other plants. 



The attack is most serious when made 

 just after the germination of the seed. 

 Later attacks are less apt to kill outright, 

 though naturally they are bound to di- 

 minish the crop. With the young beans 

 the attack is likely to occur just as the 

 beans are nicely appearing above the 

 ground. The cotyledons are blackened 

 and the young central shoot often is 

 shrivelled and dead. Maggots are often 

 to be found in the decaying cotyledons or 

 in the fleshy stems beneath the surface 

 of the soil. This occurs during the first 

 part of July. The adult flies appear in 

 the third week in July. 



The maggots appear very much like 

 those of the onion maggot and those of 

 the cabbage maggot, being white, taper- 

 ing, and about one-fourth of an inch long. 

 The adult fly looks like a miniature house 

 fly, being about one-fifth of an inch long. 



The seed corn maggot is credited with 

 breeding in decaying vegetation and also 

 in fresh manure. 



Bemedial Measures 



The standard repellents, sand and 

 kerosene, and carbolic acid emulsion can 

 be used when the beans are in the garden, 

 just as in the case of radish and onion 

 maggots. However, in the field, such 

 methods are hardly practicable. The 

 avoidance of freshly applied stable ma- 

 nure and the substitution of commercial 

 fertilizers during the year that beans are 

 raised on a given piece of ground, should 

 prove beneficial when the maggot has 

 once made trouble. Of course beans 

 should never be planted where the mag- 



