54 
to include other food plants or most forms of vegetation in order to 
keep the insects awa}^ from the crop which is being injured. 
Kerosene emulsion is one of the best remedies, but must be applied 
thoroughl}^ and at frequent intervals. 
Pja-ethrum must be applied in the same manner, but as it is one of 
the most expensive of insecticides its use would hardly be profitable 
on beets, although valuable on some other plants subject to injury, lor 
example, on berries, where it is impossible to apply poisons that would 
be harmful to man. 
If insecticides are employed they are best applied eari}^ m the morn- 
ing, before the insects have become thoroughly active and while the 
dew is on the plants, as this facilitates the spreading of most applica- 
tions which are used. 
Hand methods, although scarcely applicable to large fields, are of 
the greatest value over small areas, and a hand net of stout cloth is use- 
ful for sweeping plants and surrounding grasses and weedy vegetation 
in which the insect is sure to be found. A day's experience will be 
suflScient to teach anyone that more insects can be captured in this 
manner than in any other. 
Clean culture, although mentioned last, is the first necessity, and if 
fields subject to injury b}^ this plant-bug are kept free from weeds of 
all kinds and the rubbish is cleaned away as soon as the crop is harvested^ 
losses will be greatly lessened. After a crop is off "burning over" 
or "back firing'' should be practiced in the same manner as already 
described in connection with army worms and cutworms. 
THE FALSE CHINCH BUG. 
( Nysius angustatus TJhl. ) 
This plant-bug is a beet feeder of long standing, and like many 
other species which have been mentioned, shows a tendency toward 
being omnivorous, although cruciferous plants, such as cabbage and 
turnip, appear to be the favorite food. It does more or less injurj^ to 
potato, lettuce, grapevine, strawberry, and even grass and the foliage 
of apple trees. Its English cognomen is derived from the fact that 
since very early times it has been sent b}^ correspondents to oflicial 
entomologists under the impression that it was the true chinch bug, 
to which, indeed, it is related. 
It is grayish brown and of the appearance shown at figure 53, c, 
measuring about one-eighth of an inch. In the same figure, at (7, a leaf 
of potato is illustrated, which shows minute circular specks which are 
rusty in color where the beak of the bug has been inserted. This recalls 
the method of attack of certain fiea-beetles which have already been 
described. When occurring in large numbers the false chinch bugs 
crowd together on plants after the manner of chinch bugs on corn, 
