THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 13 



NOTES AND KXPERIMliiNTS ON CURRANT WORMS. 



EY W. SAUNDERS, LONDON, ONT. 



The larva of Nemahcs ventricosus, alas, too well known under the popular 

 designation of M currant worm/' has been very abundant in this neighbour- 

 hood during the present season. In my own garden it has been a continual 

 fight as to who should have the currant and gooseberry bushes, the worms 

 or their rightful owner. During the early part of summer, anticipating their 

 attack, I was on the look out for them and by timely doses of hellebore pre- 

 served the foliage with but little damage. In about a fortnight later, having 

 omitted inspection for a few days, I was surprised to find the bushes being 

 stripped again ; and this time the enemy had got so far ahead as to damage 

 their appearance considerably. Another prompt dosing of hellebore brought 

 relief. After this I hardly ever found all the bushes entirely free from them ; 

 a walk around the garden would reveal a few here and a few there, and I was 

 perpetually hand-killing and brushing off these smaller detachments. Four 

 times during the season I found it necessary to apply hellebore freely, for the 

 foes were a legion. 



During the middle of August, being occupied with other matters, the gar- 

 den was neglected for a few days, when on visiting it again on the 19th, I 

 found many of the bushes entirely leafless, and the foliage remaining on the 

 others was rapidly disappearing. I felt discouraged and began to have some 

 misgiving as to whether hellebore was after all such an unfailing panacea for 

 this almost universal pest, as we had supposed. I resolved if possible to 

 satisfy myself fully on this point, and having mixed about 1£ oz. of powdered 

 hellebore with a pail of water, was ready to proceed. I selected a leaf from 

 two bushes, marked them and counted the number of their inhabitants — one 

 was occupied by forty-four worms of different sizes, crowding it above and 

 below, and it was about half eaten ; the other leaf had twelve nearly full 

 grown on it. Having transferred the mixture of hellebore and water to a 

 watering pot, the bushes were sprinkled with it. I returned to examine the 

 results in three quarters of an hour, and the leaf which at first had forty- 

 four on it, had now only two, and thjse were so far exhausted that they were 

 unable to eat and could scarcely crawl, while on the other leaf out of the 

 twelve there remained three, but in the same enfeebled condition. All 

 around under the bushes, the ground was strewed with the fallen foe, and I 

 felt perfectly satisfied that entire reliance might be placed on this means of 

 defence. 



I did not anticipate such speedy action on the part of the hellebore or 

 should have returned to the examination sooner, and the bushes were so 

 entirely cleared, that excepting on one I had reserved for another experi- 

 ment, I had no means of repeating the dose. 



