The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-09-07
WEEKLY DIGEST
Of Experiment Station Bulletins
No 85
INSECT PESTS AND REMEDIES.

eASe9eS IA SOtA6 COmH1On KlQQS OF pl3nG
lice and how to destroy them. The
past season has been unusually favor
able TO the development of plant lice
and the station has received large
correspondence concerning them.
The most destructive plant louise, so
| far, is the melon plant louise. It com
pleteLy destroyed the crop in some
counties. Like all plant lice, it inserts
it's beak into the tissues Of the leaf and
sucks out the juices, which causes the
leaves to curl over them, completely
shielding them from view. Their pres
eEca is manifest by the curling leaves,
whiting and general debility of the
plants. As they suck the inside iQicee,
spraying poison On the plants dces no
good. Kerosene emulsion kills them
If it strikes them. But the best rem
e1g IS 60 pour spoonful Il bisulphide
OF carbon into clam shell and support
This on large clod or mound of earth
Gh2t will raise it as high as the tops Of
the plants, and then cover the whole
plant over with q sheet held tight to
Jhe ground, or g cover made By tack
ing canvass TO two halves of a barrel
noop crossed, with tie ends tackled &C
whole hoop. Press this wnole hoop
Into the ground a half inch or so. r.
move cover in halt an hour.
Plant lice generally have long legs
and feelers, and 5Ro tubes bshind, al
the roct of which are glands which
secrete the sweet liquid known as
honey dew. Ants feed upon this, and
they attend and care for the lice and
their eggs IS systematically as a farmer
raises cattle or poultry for his food
Late in the fall the ants Gake the eggs
into the ground to prevent freezing,
and when the young lice hatch the
ants carry them to the plant which
furnishes ti1ir food.
A very remarkable thing about plant
Ec9 is che fact that the females Iro-
duca young ones ali summer, and these
younger cne5 also produce young, gen
GRAFTON after generation, without the
presence Of q male, till the close Of the
season, when the male is produced and
at once fert.lizes the eggs that are to
remain over winter and hatch out only
females early In the spring. These
have wings and produce only females
the close of the season again, when
they in turn produce males, lay eggs
and die. They thus give birth to most
of their young, but produces come OF
them from eggs.
Some kinds feed upon one kind of
plant ill it's season ends and then at,
tack another kind. Thus the hop louse
lives upon the hop plant all summer,
multiplying rapidly, and when hops
ripen and die the lice leave them and
take up their home On cherry trees,
trees, there produce the males and lay
eggs, which hatch next spring, and
this brood lives and multiplies upon
the cherry tree till the hop plant ap.
pears.
There is also cherry louse and the
black peach louse, both quite trouble
some IL maryland, aud they breed the
year around without ceasing Ksro
eene emulsion is the best remedy for
these.
Plant lice increase so rapidly that
they would prove much more trouble
some than they are but for number
of natural enemies. The young worm
Of the syrpus fly feeds upon them, as
do lady bugs, Or lady birds, lizards,
toads, etc.
Bulletin 1875 Of Ithaca, N Y Station,
richly illustrated, treats of two new liz.
sects that are giving trouble in that
State-the currant stem girdler and
the raspberry cane meggot.
The current stem girdler is go shy
that no one ever caught one at all 1t
is the offspring of one of the species of
saw flies The tip OF the girdled stem
Wits, dies and drops #, and the insect
lays it's eggs in the pith Of the remain
ing STUB. These hatch a worm which
never burrows more than six inches
down the stem, hence if seven inches
Of the girdl6d stem be cut off and
burned dext years crop Of insects will
be destroyed.
The raspberry cane maggot comes
from the eggs of f1y that very closely
resembles the house fig. 1t is closely
related to the onion maggot and cab.
bage rcOt'maggot. II first appeared in
1895, aud has given much trouble this
year. The tips of the infected canes
wilt, droop and die. AS soon as droop,
ing tips are noticed cut them several
inches below the point of girdle and