REPORTS FROM LOCAL SOCIETIES. l-' : ' 



Worm. There arc several species of these cut-worms, but all of them arc much 

 alike. They feed upon various substances, such as corn, grass, cabbages, and 

 tomatoes, but arc usually most abundant on grass land, and greatly injure the 

 corn crop when planted on sod. 



The parents of these cut worms arc pale, grayish moths, which arc often seen 

 about our lamps in the summer time. Their wings expand about one inch and 

 a half. 



The eggs are laid in the ground beneath the plants which arc to form the 

 food of the insect. They soon hatch and then the cut worms come to the sur- 

 face of the ground during the night and dark, cloudy days to eat. Some of 

 these cut worms are of a cream color, while others arc a dull black. When 

 fully groAvn they form an earthen cocoon, whence the perfect insect comes out 

 in June. In our gardens we may kill these by digging them up or by cleaning 

 the garden of all rubbish and laying down several handfuls of grass, under 

 which they will hide in the day time and may then be killed. Sprinkling the 

 ground around the plants with a mixture of salt, ashes and plaster is also recom- 

 mended by some. When transplanting the plants we may wrap a piece of sized 

 paper about the stem and this will protect the plant. The paper should extend 

 down below the surface of the ground. 



Those of you who are blessed with nervous wives or daughters, have no doubt 

 some time in your life been quite startled by a shriek coming from them when 

 they were out picking tomatoes ; hastening there to learn the trouble, you found 

 that it was caused by those "horrid tomato worms," whose harmless caudal 

 horn, was, in their estimation, capable of inflicting a death sting on any person 

 who dared to touch them. 



These tomato worms are the young of those large humming bird moths 

 which we may see flying about our flower beds about dusk in July and August. 

 This moth has a very long sucking tube with which it sucks the sweets of 

 flowers. Its tapering abdomen has five light colored spots on each side. The 

 moth is grey. The larva is usually green, though sometimes brown or black, 

 and on each side are oblique whitish stripes. They grow to nearly three inches 

 in length, and then enter the ground in the fall, remain there all winter, and 

 come forth as moths the next summer to lay eggs on the vines, which soon 

 hatch and begin another round of destruction. Hand-picking is about the only 

 way to get rid of these, though turkeys will sometimes eat them. 



The last insects of which I have time to speak to-day, arc the cucumber 

 beetle, and the squash bug, both of which feed upon cucumbers, squashes, 

 melons, etc. 



The cucumber beetle is one of a large class that live upon the leaves of vari- 

 ous plants, and which are commonly called leaf beetles. The potato beetle, the 

 grape leaf beetle, the asparagus beetle, and many others belong to the same 

 class. The eggs of the cucumber beetle are laid upon the leaves where they 

 hatch in a few days. The grubs then eat the bark and bore into the stem of 

 the plant just below the surface of the earth, and sometimes even above ground. 



The grub is white with a brown head, and when ready to pupate it is about 

 half an inch loner. It is in the earth about two weeks undergoing its transfor- 

 mations and then comes forth as the striped cucumber beetle to live upon the 

 leaves of its own food plants. In the fall, however, the larva forms an earthen 

 cocoon in which it remains all winter, and appears in the beetle form in the 

 spring. 



The squash bug lives over winter in old rubbish, and is on hand ready to de- 



