240 



on what is termed here the Spanish cocklebnr, hut I have seen it also od the poison- 

 ous nightshade. Its modest taste seems to have changed of late, and it has found the 

 rich juice of the orange more palatable than juices of wild and noxious weeds ; with 

 Its long proboscis it pierces the rind of the orange and sucks its sweets until satiated, 

 and every orange thus punctured falls to the ground within three or four days. I 

 have seen every orange from a full tree on the ground, the result of the voracious 

 «nemy. Five hundred or more of the insects can be seen on one tree, and a dozen on 

 one orange. The loss to the grove mentioned above amounted to $500. 



The question is, is there a limit to its depredations and can it be exterminated ? 



A brief history of its habits, with directions how to destroy it, would be very timely 

 and prevent much loss. 



This orange -feeding habit is then a temi^orary one in that it is in- 

 dulged in only while the oranges are ripening and just before picking. 

 During the rest of the year it must feed upon some other food-plani", 

 and if not upon cotton, probably upon some malvaceous plant allied to 

 it. The statement of Rev. W. F. Nigels, quoted under the section Food- 

 plants, would indicate thai it breeds upon other wild plants, but here 

 there arises a possibility that Mr. Nigels has mistaken some other al- 

 lied insect for the Eed Bug. 



REMEDIES. 



It is very important that the most careful observations should be 

 made in the neighborhood of orange groves subject to the attacks of 

 this insect upon the food-plants other than cotton, upon which it sub- 

 sists during the season prior to its migration to the orange. 



Up to the present year the orange crop seems to have been only oc- 

 casionally damaged, and this is evidently only when the bugs have enor- 

 mously increased during a favorable season upon their more normal 

 food. These food-plants once discovered for a given locality, a slight 

 examination every year will indicate whether the bugs are increasing 

 unduly, and if this is found to be the case, they can be destroyed in 

 time to prevent the winter damage to oranges. Where cotton is grown 

 near (within a few miles of) the grove, the probabilities are that the 

 bugs will have migrated from the cotton fields after picking, and in such 

 case, and when the bugs seem particularly abundant, it will pay the 

 neighboring orange growers to procure the spraying of the cotton 

 fields with a kerosene emulsion. Where there is absolutely no cotton 

 in the neighborhood, wild malvaceous plants should be watched, and 

 observers should search for whatever other wild idants form the food 

 of the bugs. If this suggestion is followed out the damage done to or- 

 anges will undoubtedly be greatly lessened. 



When the oranges are actually being attacked, it is difilcult to fight 

 the insects. Mr. Duncan, in his letter of November 22, stated that one of 

 his neighbors, uiion the first appearance of bugs upon his trees, secured 

 a spraying outfit and a quantity of the Hubbard kerosene emulsion and 

 went to work, but gave it up in two days. The emulsion killed the 

 bugs but others kept coming in, and it was impracticable to contiuu- 



