Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


 STRAWBERRY FLEA-BEETLE (Haltica ignita)
 This insect eats holes in the leaves of strawberry plants.
 It is sometimes quite destructive in a bed of them, even to the
 point of defoliating the vines. This flea-beetle (fig. 62) is
 about 1/5 of an inch long and of a yellow-bronze color. Control
 measures are the same as for the species attacking the beet
 (see page 136). If the attack occurs during the picking season
 the use of arsenic in any form should be avoided. Bordeaux will
 repel it altho it is not as effective as lead arsenate.*

 FIELD CRICKET (Gryllus assimilis)
 The field cricket (fig. 105) is commonly found under the
mulch in strawberry beds. Prof. A. L. Quaintance, who made a
study of them in Lake City, found them very injurious. The
following is quoted from his Bulletin No. 42 of this Station, p.
596.
 From the slyness and alertness of these insects, they can rarely be
approached unawares, and studied in their normal mode of living. Exami-
nations of many different plants from which crickets have been frightened
led me to believe that the cricket must undoubtedly be classed as an enemy
to the strawberry grower. In the majority of cases where crickets were
frightened from plants, much of the ripe fruit has been eaten into in such
a way that decay would soon result. A hole an eighth of an inch thick
or more is sometimes eaten into the fruit, but more usually several smaller
pits are eaten out. If an individual cricket were to confine its attention
to one berry, the damage would not be so great, but it does not seem to
do this, but attacks several different berries. In this way a single insect
is able to occasion the destruction of a considerable number of ripe fruit
in a short while."
 Young chickens in a patch will quickly destroy these in-
sects. Quaintance recommends the poisoned bait.
 OTHER STRAWBERRY PESTS
 Other insects more or less destructive to strawberries are:
Greenhouse whitefly (see under sweet potatoes, page 187) ; white
grubs (see under potatoes, page 178) ; leaf-footed plant-bug
(see under potatoes, page 178) ; and grasshoppers (see under
general garden pests; page 122).

 SUNFLOWER
 This common garden annual is severely attacked by plant-
bugs. They first attack the stem of the young plant and when
the head is formed shift their attention to that. They suck the
juices from the forming seeds and continue their attacks until
the seeds are quite mature. By harvest time many seeds are
empty shells, valueless as poultry food. The most common of
these bugs is the leaf-footed plant-bug (see under potatoes, page
 *See page 205, Strawberry Flea-Beetle and Crape Myrtle.