22 BULLETIN 892, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The beetles may be trapped by placing heaps of weeds, or bundles 
of straw or hay, on or near the alkali areas. It is advisable to place 
such “traps” not later than August, so that they may become well 
settled before the beetles seek them for winter quarters. After the 
beetles have gone into hibernation under the “traps” they may be 
destroyed by burning. : 
The effectiveness of burning depends upon the thoroughness with 
which the beetles and their hibernating quarters are destroyed. 
Careless, slipshod work will invariably fail to produce the desired 
results. 
Occasionally an infested field is so situated that a flock of chick- 
ens may be quartered in it. Chickens relish the beetles, and may 
be depended upon to do good work in reducing infestation. 
The almost invariable failures which have followed the efforts to 
control the beet leaf-beetle with insecticides have had a tendency to 
discourage the beet growers, and many regard the injuries inflicted 
by this pest with indifference or as an unavoidable evil. 
The results of the investigations which are here reported will 
serve to clear up many hitherto unpublished facts regarding this 
insect. Among others the practically complete knowledge of the 
insect’s life history shows that this pest can be controlled by simple 
and inexpensive means. The destruction of the beetles by burning 
them in their hibernating. quarters has proved so thoroughly effec- 
tive and so easily accomplished that there is little or no excuse for 
beet growers to continue to submit to injury from this insect in 
the future. 
SUMMARY. 
In the Rocky Mountain States sugar beets and garden or table 
beets, Swiss chard, and spinach are subject to attack by the beet 
leaf-beetle (/onoxia puncticollis Say), or “alkali bug,” an insect 
resembling the elm leaf-beetle. 
This insect normally lives in alkali regions, breeding on such 
weeds as the sea-blites, Russian thistle, salt-bush, and lamb’s-quarters, 
but when it becomes abundant there is an overflow to cultivated 
plants, which are attacked and often greatly injured. 
Injury is accomplished chiefly by the larve, although the beetles 
also do much damage, not infrequently eating young beets “ down 
to the ground.” Many hundreds of acres of beets are destroyed 
every year. The beetles also act as carriers of a fungus disease. 
The beetles issue from their winter quarters during March and 
April, feed on weeds, mate, and within a short time begin laying 
their eggs. The rounded oval, orange-yellow eggs are laid on the 
underside of the leaves in masses of varying number, from 2 or 8 to 
50, a single female depositing between 300 and 400 eggs and even 
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