The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1917-10-15
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PUMPKIN BUGS IN CITRUS
GROVES
(By J. R. Watson.)

groves are sometimes infested with
large green bugs or pumpkin bugs"
They puncture the fruit, which turns
yellow, and, if the punctures are num-
erous, drops from the trees. This
fruit is dry and tasteless, the juice
having been extracted by the bugs.
Tangerines are their first choice, or
anges next, while grapefruit is sell
dom injured.
The attacks of the bugs are usually
brought on either by leaving the cover
crop of cowpeas, beggarweed or velvet
beans on the ground too long, or by
the lack of thoroughness in cutting
leaving uncut patches between the
trees,-or by using the wrong method
of cutting.
Because of their large size, no spray
safe to use will kill the adult bugs.
The writer believes that collecting the
bugs is economical, and presents fig
ures showing the actual cost of such
operations carried out recently in a
200-acre grove. The method used in
collecting the bugs was suggested by
that formerly used in collecting the
curculio from plum and peach trees.
Larfe nets three feet in diameter and
of an equal depth are made of muslin
Each has a short handle extending
across the diameter of the net to stiff
en- the rim made of telephone wire.
One man may manipulate this net,
but two men may work to better adj
vantage. One places the net under a
limb full of fruit and the other gives
the limb a quick, vigorous shake
which causes the bugs to roll into
the bottom of the net. After the men
have finished a tree the bottom of the
net is dipped in bucket containing
kerosene. This keeps the net constant
ly wet with kerosene.
The work in this grove of ten-year-
old trees set 20 by 80 feet, cost be-
tween so and IS cents an acre, and
from 80 to 100 bugs tree were col
lected. Two men with net covered
at least two acres a day. The labor
cost $1.50 a day for each man. This
is less than the cost of spraying even
if a safe and effective solution were
known. On larger trees with more
bugs the cost would be greater, but
should in no case exceed $1.50 an acre,
still much less than the cost of
spraying.
For large trees not too close togeth-
er and with few limbs touching the
ground to prevent ready manipula-
ton, the nets should be larger. We
used some nets 6 by IL feet. These
were suspended from light wooden
frame like those used for holding
quilts or stretching curtains, the net
sagging two Or three feet in the CEN
ter. The net should be of closely WOW
en- canvas so that insecticide oil, crude
oil or kerosene can be placed in the
bottom, into which the bugs will fall.
Cotton waste placed in the net will alb
sorb the oil and in rolling around will
thoroughly wet the bugs. Two men
will be required to manipulate the net
and at least another to shake the
branches.
For large trees these nets will be
found more economical than the small
er ones strung on telephone wire. They
are effective, however, only at tenn
perature below 70 degrees. Above
that, the bugs will take to wing as
they drop and before they strike the
canvas. The use of the large nets is
therefore restricted to the very early
morning, to moonlight nights and to
cold days. The smaller nets can be
used all day, though more effectively
in the early morning.
The bugs now on the fruit will, bar
ring accident, continue to feed until
cold weather when they will crawl in
to the crevices and go into Information,
to issue forth again in reduced num-
bers with the first warm days of
spring. If there are still many bugs
on the grass and cover crop it would
perhaps be best to pillow the field. This
will turn under and destroy many
bugs, especially the young, and drive
the remainder to the trees where they
can be collected, thus ending the
trouble. Otherwise, there may be a
steady migration of bugs to the trees
until cold weather sets in. 1t will also