322 Gardening 



shoots and mature plants. Various sorts of tiny " flea 

 beetles " eat holes into the leaves of eggplants, squashes, 

 cucumbers, melons, snap beans, and tomatoes. These 

 insects are best destroyed by sprays of arsenate of lead. 

 The blister beetles of the beet and Swiss chard are 

 black or striped beetles about J inch in length. They 

 often " come in droves," and if unchecked, soon do 

 much injury. It is not advisable to spray Swiss chard 

 with poisons, but the insects may be caught by beating 

 and shaking from the plants into a wide-mouthed pail 

 containing water and a small amount of kerosene. 



THE SUCKING INSECTS 



The insects which are known as the " true bugs " have 

 their mouth parts arranged in the form of a tube-like 

 beak. Those that live upon plants feed by inserting this 

 beak into the plant and sucking out the juice. They 

 are therefore not injured by poison on the surface of the 

 leaves, but must be sprayed or dusted with something 

 that will kill them by coming in contact with them. 

 Kerosene emulsion and preparations containing nicotine 

 are most generally used for this purpose. 



Aphids. The most common sucking insects in the 

 garden are the plant lice or aphids. There are many 

 kinds of aphids that attack plants. Some feed upon 

 roots ; others on the parts that grow in the air, mostly on 

 tender young leaves, buds, or fruits. They are all 

 rather small and feed wholly on plant juices. In the 

 North they live over winter in the egg stage, but in 

 the more southern states they are present in the adult 

 stage throughout the winter as well as in summer. 



