GARDEN CHxVFER. 33 



to be borne in mind that these little Garden Chafers are more 

 active than the Cockchafers, and lly about freely in the 

 sunshine. 



The German method of collecting is to beat or shake them 

 down at whatever time they are found to be most torpid 

 (whether in the evening, or in the cool early morning hours) 

 on to cloths, or sheets, or anything spread below the boughs 

 which will allow of shaking the beetles together and de- 

 stroying them. An inverted umbrella is particularly men- 

 tioned as a convenient receptacle. This would be useful on 

 a small scale of working, as for Eoses or the like ; probably 

 in orchard work the attendance of the pigs, which are 

 invaluable in similar operations with Cockchafers, would be 

 also useful here, and might save the trouble of spreading 

 anything beneath the trees to collect into. But whatever 

 method is followed in the detail of beating down, the im- 

 portant point is that it should be done when the beetles are 

 torpid. 



For the following note of great presence of the Eose Chafers 

 having occurred for a few days, and of the simple method 

 used to get rid of them, I am indebted to Mr. T. P. Newman, 

 of Hazelhurst, Haslemere. Writing on the 20th of September, 

 Mr. Newman mentioned : — " They swarmed with me for two 

 or three days only ; we did nothing by day, but acted on your 

 hint at dusk ; put sheets under the fruit trees, shook the 

 latter, and picked up hundreds of the beetles, which made no 

 attempt to escape, and destroyed them in hot water. They 

 attack the Scotch and Austrian briers much more than any 

 other Eoses." 



Another correspondent, writing from a much infested 

 localit3% mentioned that he noticed that "these beetles never 

 fly when the temperature is low, or in the evening. When 

 the sun goes down you can shake them off the trees easily." 

 " But," it was also noted, "unless you put a sheet underneath 

 the trees, you would never find them, as they seem to dis- 

 appear the mdment they touch the ground." 



Yet another observer mentioned : — "We gathered in some 

 hour and a half (by shaking the fruit trees over a sheet, 

 rolling it up, and shaking the beetles into a stable bucket) 

 more than half a bucket of solid beetles. These and most 

 others, after scalding, we gave to our fowls." 



But whether by means of shaking down, or on a small 

 scale, as with Eoses, even hand-picking, the only remedial 

 course with regard to the beetles seems to be clearing them 

 from the infested leafage so that there shall be no chance of 

 their conveying themselves back again ; and where it may be 

 impossible (as in clearing hedges, which are sometimes very 



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