146 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A most efficient remedy remaining is found in suffocation, which 

 may be accomplished by the use of oils, tobacco smoke, or 

 irritants like pyrethrum powder. Like other insects these breathe 

 through numerous small openings or spiracles, generally situated 

 along the sides of their bodies, and it is by closing or irritating 

 their breathing organs, and thus practically causing suffocation, 

 that kerosene emulsion, whale oil soap, and other allied insecticides 

 prove effective. It must be remembered, however, that these 

 remedies are often of little use against the more active, stronger 

 insects, and are most effectual when applied against those which 

 are weak, sluggish, or soft. 



The young terminal shoots of many shrubs and young trees are 

 often stunted and made to grow in unnatural, bush}^ forms, by 

 little greenish bugs or hoppers of various species, which puncture 

 and suck the sap from the leaves and tender stems and cause these 

 distortions. The annual growth of young maples, lindens, 

 locusts and other trees are often thus checked from several inches 

 to a foot or two, and the lateral buds are crowded in large 

 numbers near together around the twigs, resulting in injury to the 

 appearance, value, and development of the tree. 



Little green and red banded hoppers, commonly but erroneously 

 called "Thrips", suck the sap from grape leaves, causing them to 

 become spotted and dry ; a small green species is sometimes so 

 plentiful on rose bushes as to cause the leaves to dry and fall on 

 account of the constant piercing and loss of sap. 



The disease of chr3"santhemums which causes the young growths 

 to become bunched and impairs the flowering value of the plant 

 — causing it to become " blind " as some cultivators express it — 

 is prol)ably mostly due to injuries of the same nature. 



In their winged state, many of the little bugs which cause this 

 mischief take alarm and fly away so quickly that they are scarcely 

 seen ; if the young are on the plants they conceal themselves if 

 possible. 



Frequent and thorough spraying with a strong decoction of 

 tobacco and soap, or the use of kerosene emulsion, and the dip- 

 ping of infested branches into the enuilsion, will be found valuable 

 in lessening the injuries on small trees, shrubs, and other plants. 

 Covering small plants and fumigating with tobacco is effective. 

 Good results will also be obtained by dusting with fresh pyrethrum 

 powder, or tobacco dust ; these remedies are clean and easilj' 

 applied. But, as many of these insects feed upon grass and other 



