1905 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 138 



these troublesome root insects, and for their experimental studies of remedial 

 treatments. It is now fairly well known that many of the so-called remedies 

 are utterly worthless. 



The most common root maggots that are found affecting vegetables are 

 the Cabbage or Eadish Eoot maggot, and the Onion Maggot. The adults 

 of these are small flies. These lay their eggs on the stems of the plants near 

 the ground and the maggots on hatching make their way down the stem and 

 begin burrowing into the roots. It is a common thing to find the surface of 

 the roots of young radishes completely mined by maggots. When full grown 

 these maggots form brown puparia in the soil. The cabbage or radish mag- 

 got does its chief harm in June and July, as the young radishes are coming 

 up and after the young cabbages are transplanted. 



With regard to remedies, it may be repeated that no perfectly effective 

 remedy has been found for the cabbage root maggot, but the following 

 remedies are valuable in controlling their depredations to some extent : 



(1) Cheese cloth covers. In the large truck gardens of Long Island and 

 New York, many of the growers resort successfully to the use of enclosures 

 made of cheese cloth, arranged about light wooden frames. These may be 

 made of any size, and can be removed at time of cultivation. If such frames 

 are kept over the young plants for about six weeks, injury from these maggots 

 may be completely prevented, since the fly is not able to deposit her eggs 

 on the plants. 



(2) Tarred paper disks. These were advocated by Prof. Slingerland, 

 but the great objection to such a procedure is the trouble required to place 

 the disks on the plants, and most growers of cabbages prefer to lose their 

 plants rather than take this extra trouble. 



(3) Hellebore or Insect Powder. Both of these insecticides have been 

 used to great advantage. Dr. Forbes says "about one-half tea cupful of a 

 decoction of pja-ethrum powder, four ounces to a gallon of water, or white 

 hellebore of the same strength, poured around the root of each plant after 

 drawing away the earth right down to the roots, will destroy any maggots 

 which may have started work. The earth should be put back again and the 

 plants hilled up, when new rootlets will soon be formed. A light sprinkling 

 of nitrate of soda will encourage a quick growth and help the plants to over- 

 come attack." 



For radishes white hellebore used as a powder and dusted along the 

 rows once a week has given good results ; and a carbolic wash prepared 

 originally by Prof. Cook by dissolving one pound of hard soap in a gallon of 

 water and one-half pint of crude carbolic acid added, then the whole is boiled 

 together for a few minutes to make a stock solution, which should be diluted 

 fifty times with water when required for use. This solution should be 

 sprayed upon the plants once a week from the time they appear above the 

 ground until ready for use. 



White Grubs. These are the well known larvse of June Beetles. The 

 adult beetles deposit their eggs just below the surface of the ground and 

 the grubs hatching feed on the roots of plants for from two to three years. 

 In Bulletin 44 of the Illinois Agricultural Experimental Station, Dr. S. A. 

 Forbes states that the grubs do not change to pupae until June and July 

 of the third Season, — the perfect beetles transforming in September but not 

 emerging until the next spring. White Grubs are often very abundant and 

 injurious in garden plots, but a good rotation of crops will do more than 

 anything else to control these insects. Dr. Forbes claims that as the white 

 grubs have an opportunity to develop only in sod land and do not seem to 

 relish the roots of clover plants, it would be well to bring strawberries or 



