INSECTS 



ging-out " process is usually the only resort, although 

 some report that they readily kill the depredator by 

 simply injecting a little carbon bisulfide into the en- 

 trance of his burrow and quickly closing it with putty. 



Bud and Leaf-feedintj Insects. — The buds and leaves ' 

 of horticultural crops often swarm with legions of biting 

 and sucking Insects. A mere enumeration of the dif- 

 ferent kinds of these pests would weary the reader. 

 Some Insects, like the rose chafer, work on several dif- 

 ferent kinds of plants, while many others attack only one 

 or two kinds. In ap|.lr .mhanls. the opening buds are 

 seized upon by the huiiLrry t'lnl inMrh and case-bearing 

 caterpillars, by the n. \vl\ li.iirl,, d canker-worms, and 

 by tent-caterpillars, wli.'-i' t.-iits or " signboards " are fa- 

 miliar objects in niaiiv <iriliards. These pests continue 

 their destructive work on the leaves. The pear slug 

 often needs to bo checked in its work of skeletonizing 

 the leaves of the pear and cherry. The pear psylla, one 



pear-growing in many localities; the fruit is either 

 dwarfed or drops from badly infested trees, and some- 

 times so many little pumps sucking out its life finally 

 cause the de.ith of the tree. The little blue grape-vine 

 flea-beetle often literally nips the prospective crop of 

 fruit in the bud, or the rose-chafer may swarm over the 

 : the foliage or blossoms. Currant and goose- 

 ■ lance against the 

 the price of a crop of fruit. 

 The asparagus beetles 

 would soon appropriate 

 every asparagus shoot 

 that appears in many 

 localities. It is a con- 

 tinual struggle against 

 Insect pests to get a 

 paying crop of almost 

 any vegetable. The 

 several kinds of cab- 

 bage caterpillars would 

 soon riddle the leaves. 

 The hungry striped cu- 

 cumber beetles can 



n59. Grasshopper 



Mounted. 



melon, squash, or cuci 



sucking Insects, the harlequin cabbage bug and the 

 squash stink-bug, are equally as destructive as their 

 biting relatives. 



The bud- and leaf-feeding Insects are usually readily 

 controlled by spraying some poison on their food, or 

 by hitting them with some oil or soap spray. As the 

 female moths of canker-worms are wingless, a wire 

 trap or sticky bandage placed around the trunk of the 

 tree in the late fall and early spring, to capture the 

 moths as they crawl up the tree to lav their eggs, mil 

 greatly help to check these serious pests The collection 

 and burning of the conspicuous egg rings of the tent 

 caterpillars at inv time between \uguxt ind the fnl 

 lowing April vmII irieiTh rediu e tlu \ isi mimbf rs < t 

 tents or suMii i K t slnttl si s m | | I i li i I 

 Hind pitkiiu I 1 T I I t I T till II 



of controllm.' tl . i I t . I il , iiii II I 



indth. s |u li t 1 I 1 1 1 1 11,1 t I li 11 



ch. in s ind tpriLots art il 

 worst Insect enemy of thi 

 culio the plum gouger, a 

 works m the pit of plums i 

 fruit m some states "Knot 

 woikof the adults of the quii 

 often ruins the fruit with 

 There is also a grape curculi 



caterpillar of a little moth. 

 Currants and i,'oo^rli,iri. s : 

 work of two or rlir.-- iliiT. r. 

 caterpillars. A mw- jM'^t ha^ 

 cherry in its menu; it is a tn 

 apple maggot; iutV-sted oher: 

 signs of the presence of th 



fly. Mounted. 



juices within. Various small beetles, known as weevils, 

 are responsible for most wormy nuts. 



Most of till- fruit rating Insects are out of the reach 

 of the ordinary iii~. ,ti.-ides. The codling-moth is anoted 

 exception, how. v.i-. for the peculiar habit that the little 

 caterpillar has of usually entering the blossom end of 

 the fruit and feeding therein for a few days, gives the 

 man with a poison spray a very vulnerable point of 

 attack. It is only necessary to spray a bit of poison into 

 the open calyx cup within a few days :ifter the petals 

 fall, and let nature soon close tlo • :■]]■ < ■ :im1 K.i p the 

 poison therein until the newh" h ' ' ' ' ' illar in- 

 cludes it in its first menu. (>ih ■ it ,,f the 



apples that would otherwise be nil !■ i ii; .; iiinsare 



saved by an application of Paris ;;r, . n ai iln.-, critical 

 time. The fact that the apple maggot never leaves the 

 fruit until after it is picked or has fallen from the tree, 

 gives one a chance materially to reduce its numbers by 

 frequently gathering the windfalls and feeding them to 

 stock or burying them deeply. As the iiliiiii .iiri'ulio, in 

 the adult stage, feeds on the leav. s .in.l fruits, a poison 

 spray, applied soon aft. r hlossoming 



"X ^W^ / against it, partirularl\ on .lierries. 



ff/~\M Many extensivo orow.is of the stone- 



\j(m '\|y fruits, however, aro -ati-li. d that this 



^^ ' pest can behest , iriiiinv onn d by jar- 



ring the curculio- nnjo ^h. ii- and kill- 

 ing them; the .|llll..a- rinnilio is also 

 best fought b\ iho ]ariili:_' motliod. 



Hmd-picking of ilo mf, .i,d fruits 



A\\ i\ r^utsorSierries'areafti;;^'!^ 



vf \. Ill / '■^ Plaiit-Lhc. -Scarcely a plant es- 

 *""" 1 ijies the little suction pump or beak 



of some kind of a plant-louse or aphis. 

 \bout 250 different kinds of plant-lice 

 i have been identified in the United 



stites, and nearly every kind of fruit, flower, farm or 

 1 1 ^ 1 1 11 I ] his Its special plant-louse enemy, which is 



I I I tt I I us factor in the production of a crop. These 



II tl I litil I t II s are so ^mall, so variable, so hard to per- 

 1 1 i\ I 1 nt so many different forms in the same spe- 



I hIrs I iLs md Ui\e such varied and interesting life-stories 



ot that to tell, that what we now know about them is but a 



lum cur mere beginning as compared to what is yet to be 



ise grub learned It would take a large volume to include the in- 



I to this teresting stones which might be told of the lives and of 



I- h the the relations with ants of some of the commonest of 



It _iiib these plant lice No other group of Insects presents so 



I ill h manv curious, varied, interesting, and wonderful prob- 



I I 1 t the lems of life as do the aphids. 



