4 SOME INSECTS INJURIOUS TO TRUCK CROPS. 
puparia being present under the mined outer skin. In the neighbor- 
hood of Concord, a very important asparagus-growing region where 
hundreds of acres are devoted to this crop, the infestation was practi- 
cally absolute, the insect being found even as abundantly as the common 
asparagus beetle, being present wherever rust was found, as also where 
no rust was present. The specimens submitted were about the average 
as regards the degree of infestation, some plants showing injury 7 
inches below the surface. 
Severe injury was reported on the farms of Mr. Frank Wheeler and 
Mr. Charles W. Prescott, at Concord, Mass. The growers in that 
region had never noticed this insect until Mr. Shamel's examination 
showed that its injuries were extensive. Later Mr. Shame! reported 
finding infestation in every field and patch of asparagus which he 
visited in Massachusetts and Connecticut, particularly at Suffield, 
Granb}^, and Hartford, Conn., and he believed attack to be widespread. 
October 26, 1906, Mr. Ralph E. Smith wrote, by request, that the 
conditions under which this asparagus miner was found in abundance 
in the yellow stalks of asparagus in California, as reported by him in 
an article on Asparagus Rust Control, had prevailed for two or three 
years. The insect was al waj^s very abundant at the base of these yellow, 
dying stalks, although the injury was attributed to the "centipede," 
reported as wireworms on a previous occasion. 6 
REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
Witn our present knowledge of the life economy of this species, two 
methods of control suggest themselves as of greatest value, and it may 
be that the} 7 will prove all that is necessary under ordinary conditions. 
(1) In spring permit a few volunteer asparagus plants to grow as a 
trap crop, to lure the fly from the main crop or the cutting beds for 
the deposition of her eggs. After this has been accomplished the trap 
crop should be destroyed b} T pulling the infested plants and burning 
them with their contained puparia. The time to pull the plants will, 
vary according to locality and somewhat according to season also. 
The second and third week in June would be about the right time in 
and near the District of Columbia. On Long Island this work should 
be done a week or two later. In the northernmost range of this 
insect — for example, in Massachusetts — the last of June and the first 
of July would probably be a suitable time. 
(2) The second generation can be destroyed in like manner by pull- 
ing old infested asparagus stalks as soon as attack becomes manifest 
and promptly burning them also. 
«Bul. 172, Univ. Cal. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. 21; &Bul. 165, 1. c. 
