1909.] The Insect and Allied Pests of the Hop. 561 



first attack, which often comes from a distance, is warded 

 off, and so the subsequent hordes of "flea" are largely 

 prevented. Poultry, especially chickens, if allowed to run 

 in a garden, devour the beetles very readily when they are 

 on the surface of the soil. 



I have never yet found a substance that will drive "flea" 

 away when it has once got a firm hold of the plant. Some 

 growers say soot and lime will drive the pest away, others 

 road dust, others get good results with the sweepings of 

 barns dusted over the plant when dew or moisture is on 

 the foliage. Other growers, however, have not met with 

 the same success, but these methods are well worth trying, 

 as there is no one certain remedy for "flea." In Germany 

 good results are said to have been obtained with arsenical 

 washes, but in this country spraying with arsenate of lead 

 has proved of no use whatever. Recently a grower in Kent 

 informed me that MacDougall's wash drives this pest away. 



The Hop Cone Flea (Psylliodes attenuata, Latreille). 



This is essentially a hop insect, and occurs in Kent, Sussex, 

 and Surrey, and I have also found it in Worcestershire. It 

 differs from the former species in being more elongate, the 

 wing-cases being deep shiny green, and the legs a dull 

 reddish. In length it is about if mm. It is far more 

 injurious than the former species, as it occurs late in the 

 season, and especially when the hops are ripening. Miss 

 Ormerod records it from a note of a correspondent at Kings- 

 north, Kent, as occurring on April 22, and states that nine- 

 tenths of the flea there were of that species. This hop flea 

 feeds on the bracts of the cones, and so riddles them that the 

 crop is ruined. It also feeds on the shoots early in the year. 

 If they occur in any numbers when the fruit is small they 

 not only eat it but are said to lay their ova in the cones, and 

 as the larvae are said to live by burrowing in the bracts and 

 strigs they would cause the whole cones to decay or shrivel 

 up. One garden I examined in 1896 near Ashford was quite 

 ruined by this beetle. 



The beetles shelter in the cones in dull weather. They are 

 not active to the same extent as other flea beetles, and cannot 



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