e unripe squashes or pumpkins in such numbers as to completely
cover them. Every country boy or girl has seen these stinking bugs on
pumpkins in the corn field, at corn cutting time in the fall.

[Illustration: Pumpkin in field covered with adults and nymphs of squash
stink-bug.]

The squash bug lives thru the winter as the matured winged insect. It
flies from its food plant to winter quarters late in the fall. For
winter protection it may enter buildings, hide under shingles on roofs,
crawl into piles of lumber, under bark of dead trees or stumps or hide
under any similar protection. When its chosen food crops begin to come
up in the spring it leaves its winter home and flies in search of food.
After feeding for a time the female lays patches of oval, flattened,
gold-colored eggs set on edge. When first deposited the eggs have a
pale color but in a short time the golden color appears. In some cases
only three or four eggs may be found in one patch while again there may
be twenty or thirty of them. They are so brightly colored that they can
easily be seen and most boys and girls have seen them on the leaves of
squashes or pumpkins.

[Illustration: Cluster of golden-brown eggs of squash stink-bug showing
two recently hatched nymphs.]

In a few days after they are laid they hatch and out of each crawls a
small, long-legged blackish or greenish young bug called the nymph.
These little fellows usually stay in a crowd hiding on the under side of
a leaf. After feeding for a time their leaf begins to turn yellow and
soon dies. Then they move to a new leaf. As they feed they grow rapidly
and after shedding their skins they change to the second nymph stage.
This shedding of their skins or molting occurs five times before they
mature. Of course each time before the old skin or suit of clothes is
discarded a new one is developed beneath. The females may continue to
deposit eggs for later clusters of young. They become most abundant on
the crop late in the fall. Just before cold weather sets in the adults
again seek winter shelter.

This is a very difficult insect to control. Since it feeds on liquid sap
only it is impossible to kill it by spraying the crop with a poison such
as arsenate of lead. It can not chew and swallow such poison. The young
can be killed fairly well with a spray or dust containing nicotine but
such treatments are not effective against the adults or nearly mature
nymphs. A better method is to destroy all