INJURING THE LEAVES. 117 



Remedies. — There is, perhaps, no fruit insect so 

 difficult to combat as this. As yet no practicable 

 method of destroying it in its breeding grounds lias 

 been found, and the success attending the various 

 preventives of beetle injury lias been by no means 

 universal. Spraying or dusting with pyrethrum or 

 insect powder has been found to stupefy the beetles 

 temporarily, and will occasionally prove useful in 

 j^rotecting fruits. A single rose-bush or grape-vine 

 may be covered with mosquito netting, but of course 

 this is impracticable on a large scale. Thorough 

 spraying of grape-vines and fruit-trees with a wash 

 made by adding three or four pecks of freshly 

 slaked lime, and a quart of crude carbolic acid to 50 

 gallons of water, lias been reported by several exten- 

 sive fruit growers, who have tried it on a large scale, 

 to be entirely successful, although on the other hand 

 some who have tried it in a smaller way say it did 

 little or no good. For the commercial fruit-grower, 

 however, this seems the most promising remedy. In 

 parts of Xew Jersey, hand-picking has been resorted 

 to as the only sure method of extermination, the in- 

 sects being collected in the cooler hours of the day. 



The Spotted Grape-vine Beetle. 



Pelidnota punctata. 



This insect has been known for years to attack 

 grape-vines, but it lias rarely been reported to do 

 really serious injury to them, probably because it 

 usually is present in such limited numbers that its 



