Treatments were as follows:

 (1) Orthene insecticide (Chevron Chemical) at the rate of 1 lb. AI/acre
 applied once weekly.
 (2) Orthene added to a 1% oil spray (6E, Sun Oil Co.).
 (3) Orthene added to a 1% oil spray plus aluminum foil bed mulch.
 ,(4) 1% oil spray plus aluminum foil bed mulch.
 .(5) Orthene plus aluminum foil bed mulch.
 (6) Untreated check.

 All spray treatments were applied weekly at the rate of 50 gal/acre with
 a knapsack mist blower. All treatments received a routine fungicide spray on
 a 3 to 5 day spray schedule. Other practices were the same as those followed
 during the 1970-71 experiment. The Early Calwonder peppers were seeded on Novem-
 ber 22 and the aluminum foil and the first sprays were applied on December 17.

 RESULTS

 The 1970-71 experiment. The cool weather which occurred during the first 3
 j~'ilchs oft"171 adversely aErocted those plants receiving the oil spray treatment.
 This was particularly true in treatment 2 where a total of 177 plants out of ap-
 proximately 500 were lost, with the dead plants most noticeable after a January
 freeze. This compared with 47 plants lost in treatment 4. Apparently the
 aluminum foil in treatment 4 predisposed the plants or modified the harmful af-
 fects of the oil-low temperature interaction. Previous testing had showed that
 the plants were not harmed by the oil sprays under warm growing conditions.

 The first virus infected plants were found in the plots on January 14, which
coincided with the first big aphid flight (Table 1). The first of three virus
readings was made 2 weeks later and largely reflect the results of this flight
(Table 2). All treatments showed about the same amount of infection. However, by
the second virus reading the trend had been established and this persisted to the
end of the experiment. The oil plus foil treatment showed the least amount of
virus infection and the check plots the most.

 The superiority of the oil plus foil mulch plots was clearly shown in the
yield data (Table 3), as this treatment was significantly better in total, U.S.
Fancy and U.S. No. 1 categories.

 The 1971-72 experiment. The 1971-72 experimental period was characterized
by warm weather with most of the minimum-maximum daily temperatures ranging from
60 to 80 F. Migrant aphid flights in the test plots closely followed the condi-
tion in growers fields. Maximum flights occurred in mid-December with no signifi-
cant peaks thereafter.

 No plant loss or significant burning was noted in plots receiving the oil
treatment. Aphid colonization was noted for treatments 4 and 6 which did not re-
ceive an insecticide (Table 4). In the case of treatment 4 the colonization
occurred on the upper leaf surface, presumably because the aphids avoided the
shiny surface below. Observations indicated also that more pod'drop due to pep-
per weevil injury occurred in the unsprayed check.

 Essentially the six treatments could be divided into two groups, those re-
ceiving aluminum foil and those without (Table 4). Orthene or Orthene plus oil
without aluminum foil did not significantly delay the virus. However, the addi-
tion of aluminum foil to these treatments resulted in 23 to 39% less virus at the
March 17 reading. Yields were not significantly different at the 5% level although