35 



times an early visit in the morning will show many thus collected 

 where it is easy to kill them. Burning the vines as soon as the 

 crop has been gathered, and clean cultivation, reducing the number 

 of places where protection during the winter may be found, also 

 aid in reducing the number of these pests, while a frequent ex- 

 amination of the under side of the leaves of the plants in June 

 and the destruction by hand of all eggs and young found, will 

 prove to be of sufficient value to more than pay for the time 

 required to do this. 



Other methods which are of value are : the protection of young 

 plants by coverings if the bugs appear while the plants are still 

 small ; applying land plaster well soaked with turpentine or kero- 

 sene to the ground near the stems ; planting an excess of seed 

 and forcing the rapid growth of the plant by fertilizers. All of these 

 are of value, but unfortunately no one of the methods here suggested 

 can be relied upon alone to accomplish the destruction desired. 



The Squash-vine Borer. 

 (Meliltia satyriniformis Hbn.) 



The presence of this pest to squash growers is easily recognized 

 by the sudden wilting and dying of the squash leaves during July. 

 Its work is so rapid that frequently the wilting and death of the 

 plants is the first indication of its presence when it is not a famil- 

 iar insect to the market gardener. 



The squash- vine borer passes the winter in the ground, inside a 

 silken cocoon coated on the outside with particles of dirt. The 

 adult moths which come from these cocoons appear around the 

 plants during the first two weeks in July, in Massachusetts 

 (Harris), and proceed to lay their eggs on different parts of the 

 vines, though the stems are preferred for that purpose. 



A female moth may lay over two hundred eggs scattered 

 about in this way, and from them little caterpillars will hatch in 

 from one to two weeks and begin to bore through the stems. 

 Feeding inside the plant, after four weeks or more the caterpillar 

 becomes full-grown, whereupon it leaves the stem and burrows 

 down into the ground for two or three inches, where it forms a 

 cocoon within which to pass the winter. In Massachusetts there 

 is but one brood each year. Further south, however, a tendency 

 to produce two broods is evident, and in the Gulf States there are 

 doubtless two full broods. 



Treatment. 



This would be an easy insect to destroy if the caterpillar fed on 

 the outside of the plant where some arsenical poison could be 



