6o 



IRISH GARDENING 



catorpillarf^. Either by night a motli may make 

 ius way in through the inch-open roo£ A'ontilatoT. 

 or another ventilator if forgotten ; or a butter 11 y 

 may get in by day. It may then doposit eggs 

 on a fern or ferns, and you know nothing about 

 it till some day a fern is found terribly mutilated, 

 and on exaiaination a whole drovf- of cater- 

 pillars is found. There is nothing for it tlicu but 

 to pick them off and destroy them, Avateliing for 

 them day after day, for it is hardly likely that 

 all will be found at the first search. To guard 

 against this it might be well to cover the space 

 of each ventilator witli a sheet of perforated zinc. 

 This has an additional advantage in that it 

 breaks up the air coming in and prevents a 

 <Iiaugli(. which is so hurtful to the plants in their 

 growing stage. 



Tiio last enemy we will consider, is reserved as 

 the bonnc-hourhe. The Hun eneniy of fern 

 growers, whose method is frightfuluess. whom 

 we cannot beat alone, luit will require f;iithful 

 co-operation from allies, to even kei'p iiiin. iu 

 any sort of control. Sinn Fein is his \\'aicliwor<l, 

 anil if you do not look out he will win and Viave 

 tlie rockery to himself, devastate your most 

 t reasured places, ruin your most cherished objects, 

 and drive you. in despair, to leave him undisputed 

 master. This is the character of the i-ern \\ecvil. 

 lo is a small dirty-black or browtiisli beetle (or 

 weevil), about •{ inch long, with faint greyisi.i 

 luarking on tlie back, and the head prolonged 

 into a pointed beak or snout (characteristic of 

 wefvi's generally), its outer covering is very 

 liard, so that if it falls, say on a stone or the 

 cement floor, it bounds away like a marble. Its 

 progression is slow. By day it lies hidden 

 amongst the scales on the crown of the plant, or 

 in loose earth near the plant, or small plants 

 growing close to it, and is then almost impossible 

 to find. By night it creeps up the frond and eats 

 a semi-circular piece out of the edge of a leaflet. 

 When, soon, a number of these pieces are cut 

 out, tlie disfigurement is great, the whole appear- 

 ance of a frond is destroyed. Yddtnl to tliis, t!ie 

 excrement voided scalds and discolours the leaf 

 wherever it falls, ll prefers to al! others, fronds 

 of good strong texture, such as Harts-tongues, 

 Polypodys, Cyrtomiums, and such like ; as a rule 

 it avoids .Maidenhairs, an I will not touch fdmy 

 ferns- — proliably because it does not like wet and 

 damp. If, hoping to catcli the marauder, you g<i 

 out at night with a light, you can see him busy 

 at work if you ap})roach cautiously, but on 

 attem|;ting to secure him, your breath, even 

 shaking the leaf, down he drops like a stone, 

 aud hops off any hard object he may strike, and 

 so n;ay come to rest a yard away from where 

 you thought he fell. There he will lie absolutely 

 iiiotionh'ss for about a cjuarter of an hour before. 

 he veutui'es to sljr, and sneak off very (juielly 

 and slowly to slu'Uer. Your night hunt will be 

 successful if, having seen ten or a dozen, you 

 secure one. Usually ymi will not have even one 

 for your trouble. Sometimes an odd one comes 

 out to teed liy day or towards evening, and these 

 you have mure chance of securing : even then tlie 

 chances are in his favour. J-Jut worse is yi^t to 

 come. The female deposits her eggs in tVie soil 

 at the base of the crown, amongst tin; fern ;oots. 

 grubs hatch out from these and proceed to live 

 entirely on the fern roots, eating them away, up 

 to the very I'ootstock ; as many as ten or a dozen 



may be'found 'under one fern. Naturally the 

 plant dies, unless it is a particularly large specimen 

 and strong sturdy grower ; the result is that all 

 our more delicate and sniall growing forms .soon 

 succumb, and none are left to us ])ut the com- 

 moner sturdy kinds, which can grow quicker than 

 the weevils can i-at. These grubs grow to about 

 I inch long, ratlier fa.t and rounded, pure white, 

 with little pale yellow heads, and are hardly seen 

 to move. On one occasion we had a large poly- 

 stichuni which formed a specially fine crown of 

 folded fronds, giving great promise of a splendid 

 plant next season. Being evergreen no fronds 

 were removed. In the spring we watched for the 

 unfolding and wondered that they were so late, 

 other ferns liad ]'Ut up young fresh green all 

 around,, and the old fronds of this particular fern 

 were gradually d>"ing and looking the more 

 shabby beside the; others. We stooped to pull 

 off a particularly faded frond, instead of cutting 

 it. when, lo ! the whole big ])lant came up in our 

 hand. There was not a root left remaining on it. 

 We had befoi'e contemplated moving it to another 

 more roomy poshion, but did not do so, as it 

 would have necessitated taking down several 

 rocks and a very large mass of soil, on account 

 of its immense si)read of roots. Yet now the 

 weevil grubs had shorn it of oxovy one. On 

 searching througlt the soil underneath where it 

 had stood we found about 2(i grubs. 



The adult weevils may be caught and destroyed 

 if the ferns are in pots, by standing the pot in 

 ih bucket of Avater which covers the soil. Up 

 comes the Aveevil in a few' moments, climbing in, 

 for him, a, great hurry up a leaf stem or anything 

 tViai; is aboA'e water, then we can secure liim wit.h 

 certainty and staiui> on him with grim satis- 

 faction." But this iiiethod requires (;onstant un- 

 remitting application. We could hardly plunge 

 all the plants in a house on one day ; even if we 

 did, some grubs might remain, which could not 

 come up ; they Avould soon mature and continue 

 their evil customs. If we decided to do six plants 

 every day till the whole collection w as gone over, 

 we would find that of the six we did on ^londay 

 some were visited on Monday night by weevils 

 from adjoining i)lants, who had wandered round 

 for a change of diet, or who, having observed 

 Avhat you had been at during the day, considered 

 that their locality was unhealthy, and had moved 

 lo the fresh fields you had left untenanted for 

 them. Besides all this our fernery lias no jiots, 

 and one cannot sink a whole rockery in a bucket 

 of water, so friend weevil laughs, and fares 

 sumptuously. 



Again, a hunt for the grubs may be quite 

 successful, but one cannot root u]) every plant 

 now and t.hen to look for them. The only satis- 

 factory solution is not to introduce them. Get 

 young ])lants, exa.mine every j)lant carefully : if 

 semicircular notches appear on the sides of the 

 leaves of any, suspec^t the whole lot. Do not 

 bring one into the house till you have first 

 j)lunged every one to see if any adult weevils are 

 ])resent. Then, still working outside the house, 

 turn every plant out of its pot, and cA^en at the 

 risk of th'' inevitable injury to the roots, ])i('k 

 outi ev(^ry lut of soil from the i-oots with a pointed 

 stick, and even tlien Avash them in .a buckeu of 

 water. Plant the ferns at once. They will receive 

 a S(;vere check, a.nd you may lose some, but these 

 are A'ery minor evils comijared to that of intro- 



