190 



PESTS OF GARDEN AND FIELD CROPS 



be destroyed. The worms may be killed in their mines by pressing 

 the upper and lower leaf surfaces together. 



The Squash-bug {Anasa tristis DeG.) 



Few pests of the garden are more widely or more unfavorably known 

 than the common squash-bug. As soon as squashes, cucumbers, or 

 melons have made their first leaves, the overwintering adults appear 

 and begin sucking the plant juices, causing the leaves to curl up, turn 



Fig. 237. — The Squash-bug. Eggs, nymphs, and adult. Original. 



brown, and die. Before long one will find the first batches of eggs, and 

 after a few days the young bugs begin to appear, to add to the damage. 

 Usually through summer all three stages, egg, young, and adult, are 

 to be found on the vines at the same time. The adult is rusty brown to 

 black, five eighths of an inch long, and provided with a strong sucking 

 beak. Its head is small in proportion to the size of its body. The 

 young, or nymphs, are grayish to black. They tend to cluster in colo- 

 nies, hiding in a curled-up, dead leaf when not at work. The eggs 



