MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I910. 359 



early May, they transform to pupse, and in from two to four 

 weeks afterwards the beetles emerge, dig their way out of the 

 ground, and the destructive work is renewed. A single gen- 

 eration of the species is produced in a year, and about three 

 weeks is the average duration of life for an individual insect. 



Fig. 18. (After U. S. Div. of Entomology). 



The beetles do not confine their ravages to any particular 

 portion of a plant, but consume blossoms, leaves, fruit, and all 

 alike (fig. 41, 42). Whole orchards are often devastated, and 

 the fruit crop of large sections of country destroyed. It is no 

 imcommon sight to see every young apple on a tree completely 

 covered and obscured from view by a sprawling, struggling 

 mass of beetles. 



REMEDIES. 



The rose-chafer is one of our worse insect enemies to combat 

 successfully. The difificulty is that any application that may be 

 made is unsuccessful unless applied almost continually. The 

 arsenites will kill the beetle, but are not of much value when 

 the insects are abiuidant, because of the slow action of the 

 poison. Every beetle on a plant might be destroyed one day, 

 but on the day following the plant would be completely covered 

 again. 



They may be jarred from trees on to sheets saturated with 

 kerosene, but these methods are tedious and must be practiced 

 daily in early morning or toward sundown to be effective. 



Small orchards may be protected, at least from the first arriv- 

 ing hordes of the chafers, by planting about them early flower- 

 ing plants that particularly attract the beetles. Spiraeas, Deut- 

 zias, Andromeda, magnolias, blackberries, and white roses are 



