Show insects menacing alfalfa beans fruit farmers of san juan county who expect profits from raising alfalfa seed are going to have to declare war on oil the dygus bugs arid and stated dr george knowlton 1 extension en entomologist gist after 1 spending last thursday and friday 1 1 collecting and studying in insects found in alfalfa and bean fields in company with county agent E 0 biggs dr knowlton vi visited sited nearly all alfalfa fields raising seed and found thousands efly gus bugs affecting the plants causing in the blossoms to fall with empty seed stalks as a result dr knowlton reported that in other sections of the state dusting alfalfa fields with DDT had controlled the dygus and resulted in profitable yields of seed lie he recommended om dusting 20 pounds of 10 per cent DDT dust to an acre for dygus control he stated that we are short on honey and wild bees to pollinate the alfalfa blossoms extreme care should be exercised in using DDT or it will kill off these pollina eions thus reducing the yield of seed many bean fields in the county were visited the beans are in excellent condition but showed evidence of damage and of many varieties were found in each bean blossom this is an insect that must be w watched for under favorable birc circumstances u instances it can completely destroy san juans growing bean industry this bug can also be controlled by DDT but because it lives on sun flowers sage rabbit brush thistles whistles es and other weeds it will be extremely difficult to control dr knowlton also visited several fruit orchards and found evidence of aphid codling moth pear slug and spider mites he urged that fruit raisers of the county adopt and carry out a spray program that will control these pests that limit our fruit production |