Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1909-03-16
SPRING DESTRUCTION OF TERRAPIN BUGS
Only Adult Bugs Survive the Winter Rate
of Increase. How TO Destroy Them.

The annual loss caused by ter
rapin bugs sucking the life out OF
collarCs, cabbag es, turnips and
allied plants is difficult to esti-
mate accurately, but certainly
amounts to thousands of dollars
in North Carolina. A large por-
ton of this loss may be prevented
if farmers, gardeners and truckers
will take the trouble to collect or
in some way to destroy the bugs
shat first appear this sp1ing. We
have conclusive evidence mat such
work may be made a paying in
vestment. We caunot, however,
continue to wait, as is usually
done, until the bugs become so
numerous as to cause very notice.
able injury to gardens or fields,
but on the contrary they must be
destroyed before they commence
to lay eggs; otherwise the annual
loss will remain the same or Will
increase.
In November last this station
published a press bulletin urging
farmers to Immediately collect
and kill the terrapin bugs, then in
their fields, to prevent their living
in such numbers through the win
ter. Now it seems advisable to
urge the equally important work
of destroying those individuals
that escaped last fall, and which
will soon commence to come out
from their winter hiding quarters.
Eggs and young bugs do not live
through the winter in this state ;
hence it is only full-groWn, strong,
adult males and females which
survive by finding favorable hiber-
mating quarters under rubbish
around the gardens, under stones,
in fence corners and similar
places, where they r protected
from the weather. AS this has
been a mild winter, they are liable
to appear in greater numbers than
usual in the spring.
We could not consistently urge
the task of destroying the over.
%wintering bugs if they commenced
to lay eggs upon their first appear
ance. Careful observation has
shown that at least two weeks
time elapses after the bugs appear
before the first eggs are deposited
During this period they are very
actively feeding and mating, ano
the majority will congregate in the
few old plants left from last sea-
sons crop. Wild mustard and
turnips are favorite food plants.
and collards, with their broad
leaves, often harbor a large mum.
Der Of them.
The prime object of this article
is to emphasize the fact that the
farmer or gardner who watches
closely for the first terrapin bugs
to appear has about two weeks
time to kill them and still prevent
the majority from laying eggs fol
the first generation.
Have you ever considered the
actual benefit that results from
killing one female terrapin bug
when she first appears in spring.
Observe the following statements
The average number of eggs laid
by each bug varies from eighty.
four to ninety-six-that is, seven
or eight masses of twelve eggs
each, deposited over a period Of
from four to eight weeks. There
arethree full generations each year.
Suppose we kill a single terrapin
bug and thus prevent ninety-six
young for the first generation, of
which one-half might be females
If these forty-eight females re.
produced at the same rate, the
second generation would number
4,6O8 individuals. Counting only
one-half as females, each capable
of producing ninety-six young,
the third generation would reach
the enormous number of 221, 1874,
the progeny of n female in a
single year. We can divide this
number by enc hundred and still
have over 1900 as the number OF
bugs prevented by killing one in
dividual when she first appears.
During the warm summer
months a minute parasite in the