Show LICK THESE BUGS cy by C 11 wilkinson you were advised in tills this column two weeks ago to cut clean and cultivate your alfalfa fields to a bare dry dust mulch those of you who cut your hy hay 4 within a week ot of june 16 caught most of 0 your tarnish or dygus bugs in the egg stage in the alfalfa stems so that you took them of 0 with your hay or you caught them in tile the nymph sage without wings so that you could kill them by dragging it if you got your hay oft off promptly and drug your holds fields thoroughly you killed most of the tarnish bugs of 0 your own raising I 1 have examined a lot of 0 fields very carefully A great many of you did a mighty tine fine job it everyone had dono done as well the tarnish bugs would have been licked for this year A big seed crop would have been practically certain now some folks have delayed their cutting or got behind so that they have raised a lot of tarnish bugs that have grown up arid and got their wings when these theae tolka folks cut their hay their bugs buga either fly or are carried in the wind into their neighbors fields I 1 have found a cons corla deable number of grown tarnish bugs today in fields that were practically tree free from both young and old tarnish bugs just a few days ago fields where people had done a dandy job of killing oft off their own bugs by cultivation those of you who are cutting late can be fairly sure that you will drive most of your adult bugs away and that you can kill the young ones by cultivating it if you grazed your field clean up to about five weeks before cutting you can be reasonably sure that you have not grown a lot of bugs buga to injure your neighbors crops because it takes about that long from the egg to the adult it everyone in the neighborhood has cut and cultivated at about the same time bugs can be pretty well killed oft or driven out of the alfalfa it you do not know what a tarnish bug Is 13 have some neighbor that does know or have us to show you tile the adult with wings and the nymphs without wings then examine your fields and examine closely be sure you can tell a tarnish bug from an aphis it if you find three or tour four nymphs to the square toot foot you have not cultivated thoroughly it may pay you to clip clift oft the stubble and whatever new growth there Is so ao that you can work the ground bare remember that you should cultivate as 35 shallow as you can and still work all of the surface ot of the ground so that it is bare of 0 green growth and covered with a dry dust mulch grind up the bugs it you have drug your field and you find many adults they have flown in or been blown lu in go alter after them with a baloon catcher before they have time to lay a lot of 0 eggs you may be surprised at the number of 0 little grasshoppers you catch at the same time geo your field clean and grow yourself a good crop that will make you real money remember also that alfalfa almalta that glows slowly with sturdy woody stems and rather narrow blue green leaves blossoms quickly and matures tu res more rapidly than rank soft alfalfa and it is also more certain to go to seed arid and harder for or the bugs to hurt |