106 REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1 92 1 



the portion of the attic frequented by the bats and pieces of mortar 

 and boards were thickly spotted with dead bugs or the cast skins 

 of the insects. This condition was the result of a liberal use of 

 kerosene oil and corrosive sublimate prior to our examination. 



It is difficult for anyone but an expert to distinguish between this 

 bat bug and our common bed bug. The bat insect, however, is 

 more hairy or pubescent, with the surface rather coarsely punctured 

 and the abdomen narrower than in the common bed bug or the barn 

 swallow bug, Oeciacus vicarius Horv. This last named 

 is somewhat common in and about the nests of barn or chimney 

 swallows and when the birds nest in chimneys an occasional invader 

 enters sleeping quarters to the great perturbation of the house- 

 keeper. 



Ordinarily the bugs living at the expense of bats and swallows 

 are not troublesome in dwellings. They are very likely to disappear 

 when their normal hosts are obliged to seek shelter elsewhere. 



Azalea bark scale (Eriococcus azaleae Comst). 

 Azalea twigs somewhate badly infested wit hthis insect were received 

 under date of April 19, 1920, from John Dunbar, assistant super- 

 intendent of parks, Rochester, accompanied by the statement that 

 this scale insect was quite troublesome to azaleas in the green- 

 houses and seemed to multiply very rapidly under cool conditions, 

 this being a striking contrast to the behavior of the common mealy 

 bug of the greenhouse. He also adds that it is extremely difficult 

 to control this scale insect with any kind of a spray. It did not 

 prove troublesome when the plants were plunged out in the sum- 

 mertime. 



An examination of the material showed full-grown females and 

 recently hatched young. The probabilities are that this species 

 breeds more or less continuously under greenhouse conditions. 

 Records available indicate that this may be a native species which 

 ordinarily lives in the open, since Professor Comstock has reported 

 this species as occurring commonly upon wild azalea, Azalea 

 n u d i f 1 o r a, in Coy Glen, near Ithaca, and far from any culti- 

 vated plant. This species has also been recorded upon greenhouse 

 azaleas at the Michigan State Agricultural College. 



The probabilities are that this insect can be most effectively 

 treated in greenhouses by fumigating with hydrocyanic gas at two- 

 week intervals, the repeated treatments being designed to catch all 

 the insects while young and therefore particularly susceptible and 

 also to insure thoroughness. Mr Dunbar states that this scale was 



