Reports to various Correspondents. 93 



GEO UP F. 



A. ANIMALS WHICH CONCERN MAN AS BEING V>Y.- 

 STRUCTIVE TO HIS VARIOUS WORKS, BUILDINGS, 

 LARGER CONSTRUCTIONS AND HABITATIONS. 



Leather-jacket Grubs causing damage at 

 Rye Golf Links. 



The following communication was received in May from the 

 Secretary of Rye Golf Club : — 



" Professor A. I). Hall tells me that you will probably be aV)le to 

 recommend us what to do to prevent the ravat^es of a grub which 

 has eaten the grass at two of the holes here. In hopes tliat you will 

 help us, I am sending a few of the grubs in a tin l)ox. I am told 

 they are the grubs of the Daddy Long-Legs, and that we ought to put 

 down rape dust or ' Homco.' I liave put down a small quantity of 

 both as an experiment. The soil is very thin, on shingle, and of the 

 nature of black sand. Two months ago the grass was very good, 

 and now about six acres are nearly bare." 



Professor A. D. Hall, writing on the same subject, suggests the 

 possibility of corrosive sublimate worm-killer doing good. 



The following reply was sent to the Secretary, Rye Golf Club : — 



" The larvae you send, that are eating off the grass at two of the 

 holes at Rye Golf Links and which have bared six acres of grass, are 

 those of one of the Daddy-Long-Legs {Tipxdi«lee) , one of our worst 

 grass land pests owing to the difficulty in fighting them. They have 

 now pretty well done the harm for this year. 



" In this special case, 1 think rape dust will do good in drawing 

 the larvte away from the grass roots, Ijut of course it does not harm 

 the grubs. As soon as the ' Daddy-Long-Legs ' commence to appear 

 I should Iieavily roll the land and bush-h.arrow it repeatedly ; by so 

 doing many of the flies are unable to escape from the soil by the 

 compression of the land, and many of those that do escape are killed 

 and theij* eggs are destroyed by bush-harrowing. Around the holes 

 you might make use of bisulphide of carbon. This may be injected 

 into the soil at the rate of half an ounce to every four square yards 

 for grass land. It will kill the grass just where it is put in but the 

 fumes spread out around and soon kill subterranean insects and the 

 fames do not damage the roots ; except where the actual stuff comes 



