In 1952 the work was resumed in the orchard of Conrad Casper near Anna, Illinois and was begun at the Richard Best place at Eldred, 175 miles northwest.
In 1952 five phases of the work with pecan spittle bug were undertaken as follows:
1. A study of the importance of the pecan spittle bug.
2. The hibernation of the insect.
3. Life history and occurrence of the various stages and broods of
the insect in relation to nut development of the pecan.
4. Control measures.
5. Varietal susceptibility to the insect.
1. Importance of the insect
Hibernation Studies
To learn to what extent if any the insect reduces the crop of pecans, terminal shoots from trees sprayed the previous season with three different materials were compared with the unsprayed check. These are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Pecan spittle bug effect of 1951 sprays on terminal shoots in spring of 1952
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Dead shoots
Treatment per hundred
Check 87
TEPP 62
Parathion 17
Lindane 4
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Since these terminals shoots later develop most of the nuts it would appear that the pecan spittle bug is responsible for much of the loss of crop under these heavy infestations.