GRAPE PESTS AND THEIR CONTROL 



209 



the vineyards of eastern America feeding on the tender buds 

 of the grape. From its color the insect is often called the 

 steely-beetle, and from its activity and habit of jumping 

 it is known as the flea-beetle (Haltica chalybea). The 

 vine is seldom seriously injured by this pest but many buds 

 are destroyed, causing the loss of the fruit that should have 

 developed from the buds. It is true that new buds often 

 develop after the injury, but these, as a rule, 

 produce only foliage. 



The life history of the flea-beetle is such 

 that the pest is not hard to control, the chief 

 steps in its development being as follows : 

 The beetles deposit small orange-colored eggs, 

 cylindrical in form, illustrated in Fig. 40, 

 about the buds and in crevices of the bark 

 of the canes in May or June. Most of these 

 eggs are hatched by the middle of June. 

 The larvse feed upon the foliage until about 

 July first and then crawl to the ground in 

 which they form cells and pupate. The latter 

 part of July the adults emerge and seek wild 

 vines upon which they feed, entering hiber- f grape-vine 

 nation rather early in the fall. The beetles 

 hibernate under leaves, in rubbish and in the shelter of the 

 bark of trees and vines, but emerge in the warm days the 

 following spring to seek vineyards. 



Two methods of control have been developed to keep this 

 pest under. The vines should be sprayed with three pounds 

 of arsenate of lead in fifty gallons of water when the larvae 

 are feeding on the foliage; or the beetles when feeding may 

 be knocked into a pan containing a shallow layer of kerosene. 

 The former is the cheaper and more effective method provided 

 the grape-grower has the foresight to discover the larvse, since 

 the larvse of this summer produce the beetles that will destroy 



