CHAPTER IX 



Insect and Disease Control 



Biting Bugs, Sucking Bugs and "Sappers and Miners" 



Poison Sprays for Biting Insects Contact Sprays for Sucking 



and Soft Bodied Insects 



IT ought certainly to be reassuring to the amateur fruit-grower 

 who has been reading the fat tomes on bugs to learn that, so far 

 as control is concerned, insects may be lumped in two general 

 classes: the ones that nibble and swallow little pieces of plant tissue, 

 and those that pump the juices precisely as a mosquito helps himself 

 to human gore. Here is not only the distinguishing point between the 

 bugs, but also the deciding one as to the method of fighting all except 

 those that burrow beneath the skin of the leaf, or the bark of the trunk 

 and limbs. 



The bugs that bite off and swallow pieces of leaves beetles, grass- 

 hoppers and caterpillars are most easily controlled by poisons which 

 they take into .their stomachs. They are the easiest to get rid of 

 because the poison may be spread upon the threatened parts somewhat 



in advance of their arrival, 

 then when they do arrive 

 they will promptly depart. 

 The sappers and miners 

 Peach and Apple borers 

 which constitute a sub- 



^P ^m^m mr division of the chewers 



Y ^^KSD KflC^ cannot be effectively con- 



^T Xiii Iri^feMhi^. trolled by poisons, simply 



because they have bur- 

 rowed beyond the reach 

 of such materials. Like 

 military sappers and 

 miners, they must be met 

 on their own ground 

 fought in their own tun- 

 nels where such methods 

 are feasible. 



Bugs that suck, such as plant lice and leaf hoppers, are the hardest 

 to fight. They are not affected by poisons because they do not take 

 such materials into their stomachs nothing but plant juice ! Caustics, 

 oils, poisonous gas and other materials that kill them through their 



Fig. 67. When the "shucks" begin to fall off the 

 Peaches is the time to spray 



