St/RtACE BEETLES. 



223 



of opium in some parts of India sows mustard with liis opium to protect 

 the latter, weeding" out the mustard when no longer recpiired. Sowing 

 maize with cotton, or sorg-hum and maize with cane effects the same 

 object. The practice of sowing* mixed seeds in irrigated plots serves the 

 same purpose, the valuable plants being protected by the dense growth 

 which is removed as soon as the plant is established. 



In Gonda (Oudh) the opium cultivator is said to strew chips of 

 pumpkin through his field to attract the beetles which gather there and 

 are destroyed. This is the simplest and most rational method, whenever 

 it is possible. In the case of grasshoppers only, the ordinary bag and 

 frame can be run over the fields to sweep up the grasshoppers when 



the seed is sown. This 



will not collect the 

 beetles which do not 

 jump in the air when 

 the bag approaches and 

 can be used only against 

 grasshoppers. The neces- 

 sary expenditure of a few 

 rupees for bags and an anna 

 or so an acre for labour is 

 well worth incurring where 

 grasshoppers are abundant. 



Flooding is useful where it can be practised, as in opium cultivation, 

 the weevils and grasshoppers both being captured or drowned. Trans- 

 planted tobacco has been preserved by spraying the plants with lead 

 arseniate and by dipping the seedlings before transplanting in the mixture 

 of lead arseniate and water. These plants are then poisonous and destroy 

 the grasshoppers on a large scale. 



In the case of maize, sorghum, cane, and similar crops, dropping lime 

 and lead arseniate mixture into the heart of each plant is also effective 

 and even dry mould has a good effect, the beetles then not eating the 

 delicate inner shoot of the growing plant. 



The practice of burning rob lands has possibly some Value in the 

 destruction of these beetles which are hiding in the soil and would 

 destroy the seedlings. Generally speaking it is advisable, whenever 

 possible, to sow a trap crop (n* provide some alternative food for both 

 weevils and grasshoppers ; this cannot of course be done after the crop 

 is uij and is being injured, but the insects can be anticipated in the 

 following season if this precaution is adopted in time. Wherever 

 grasshoppers are known to be abundant^ they should be swept up about the 



Fig. 265. 

 The large Ground Grasshopiier. 

 (Magnified twice.) 



