INSECTS INJURIOUS TO BERRIES 465 



No satisfactory remedies for controlling the pest in badly at- 

 tacked vineyards have yet been found. Carbon bisulphide is 

 sometimes introduced into the ground around the vines and 

 many of the root-inhabiting aphids thus destroyed. Flooding 

 has been resorted to in some regions, but such methods are either 

 too expensive or are possible only in certain localities. When 

 any of the vines are found to be unthrifty or dying, the roots 

 should be examined carefully and, if the insect is found, all of 

 the vines in the affected portion of the vineyard should be dug 

 out and burned. 



But the principal remedy for the phylloxera is the replanting 

 of the vineyard on "resistant" roots. The pest is a native 

 of America, and the wild grapes of this country have come to be 

 naturally immune, or resistant, to the attacks of the insect. 

 Grafting the European cultivated varieties on to the wild or 

 only slightly modified American varieties is therefore an effect- 

 ive means of escaping the ravages of the pest. 



Phylloxera was first made known in New York in 1853, and 

 was soon discovered to be well scattered over the wild vines in the 

 eastern United States. It was introduced into France about 

 1863, and increased with such rapidity that in twenty years it 

 had destroyed more than one-third of all the vineyards of that 

 country and had affected most of the others. It was intro- 

 duced into California, where French varieties of grapes are 

 largely grown, about 1874, and by 1900 many thousands of 

 acres of vineyards had been destroyed. The vineyards of both 

 Europe and California are now chiefly planted on resistant 

 roots. 



The Grape-root Worm (Fidia mticida). The adult of this 

 insect is a chestnut-brown beetle that appears on the vines 

 about the close of the blooming season and begins feeding on 

 the leaves. The series of cell-like holes or chain-like markings 

 which it makes in the leaves are usually the first thing to 

 attract the attention of the grower to the fact that these little 

 pests are in his vineyard. The young larvae which hatch from 

 the eggs, that are deposited on the inner bark or in crevices of 

 the vine, make their way into the ground and begin feeding on 

 the roots. If they are abundant they may destroy many of the 



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