118 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [16:3— Mar., 1920 



grown it is about five eighths of an inch long and is mottled with 

 dark brown and yellow. When it is young it is light green in 

 color. 



The full-grown insects pass the winter hidden in nooks and 

 crannies under boards and rubbish wherever they can find a snug 

 retreat. They appear in June here in the North as a rule and at 

 once attack the young plants by inserting their beaks into the 

 leaves and sucking out the juices. Later the bugs deposit their 

 brown eggs on the undersides of the leaves often in regular 

 rows. The eggs hatch in from one to two weeks and the young 

 green bugs cause severe injury by feeding on the foliage. There 

 is fortunately but one generation a year. 



About the only effective method of control in a garden is to 

 catch the overwintering bugs by hand before they deposit their 

 eggs. The bugs may be caught most easily in the early morning 

 before they become active. If pieces of boards, bark, shingles, 

 or similar objects are laid on the ground the bugs will crawl be- 

 neath them and may be caught and killed in the early morning. 

 A close watch must be kept for the bugs as they appear in the 

 spring so as to catch them before they deposit their eggs. If 

 the eggs are deposited they should be crushed or scraped from the 

 leaves with a knife. The young bugs may be hand-picked or they 

 may be killed by spraying with nicotine sulphate, i pint to 50 

 gallons of water to which 4 pounds of soap should be added. 



The Squash Vine Borer: This borer is a very secretive and 

 and troublesome enemy, for it works inside of the stem of the vine 

 and is not discovered until after it has done much damage. If we 

 saw the mother moth flying swiftly about the garden we would 

 never suspect that her young could be so diasgreeable and injurious. 

 She is a very beautiful moth with hind wings as transparent as 

 glass and with her body beautifully marked with orange or red and 

 black or bronze ; she measures something over one inch across her 

 extended wings. 



The moths emerge from their pupal cells in the ground from 

 the last of June to the middle of July. The moth lays her oval 

 dull-red eggs on all parts of a plant but principally on the stems. 

 The eggs hatch in from 6 to 15 days and the young caterpillars 

 bore into the leaf stalks and the stems and then burrow along the 

 centers. When the caterpillars are full-grown they go down into 

 the ground from one to two inches and change to pupae in earthen 



