THE IMPORTED ELM-LEAF BEETLE. 235 



cal, yellowish black, with black spots, and a wide yellow line along the 

 back and sides. 



The worm is destructive to the foliage from May until August, skele- 

 tonizing the leaves. When fully grown it descends to the ground, and 

 changes to a chrysalis, under leaves, etc., near the base of the tree. 

 While the beetle, of which there are three to four broods, also injures 

 the leaves, it is by no means so destructive as its young : 



Remedies. — Glover suggested the use of oil and tar gutters, and other barriers, sur- 

 rounding the base or the body of the tree, devices similar to those used against the 

 ranker worm and codling moth. He recommended that there be placed around each 

 tree small, tight, square boxes or frames a foot or eighteen inches in height, sunk in 

 the ground, the earth within the inclosure to be covered with cement, and the top 

 edge of each frame to be covered with broad, projecting pieces of tin, like the eaves 

 of a house or the letter T, or painted with some adhesive or repellent substance, as 

 tar, etc. The worms, descending the tree, being unable to climb over the inclosure, 

 would change into helpless chrysalids within the box, where they could daily be de- 

 stroyed by thousands. Those hiding within the crevices of the bark of the trunk 

 could easily be syringed from their hiding places. 



" I found that the quickest and most satisfactory way of destroying the insect, which 

 has nearly the same habits as the Colorado potato beetle, except that it does not 

 propagate in the ground, is to syringe the trees with Paris green and water, though 

 Loudon purple may prove just as effectual and cheaper. 



" The syringing can not be done from the ground except on very young trees, though 

 11 good fountain pump will throw a spray nearly 30 feet high. Larger trees will have 

 to be ascended by means of a ladder, and the liquid sprinkled or atomized through 

 one of the portable atomizers, like Peck's, which is fastened to the body, and contains 

 three gallons of the liquid. 



"The mode of pupation of the insect under the tree, on the surface of the ground, 

 beneath whatever shelter it can tind, or in the crevices between the earth and the 

 trunk, enables us to kill vast numbers of the pupiB and transforming larviB by pour- 

 ing hot water over them. We found that even Paris green water poured over them 

 also killed. If the trees stand on the sidewalks of the streets the larvte will go for 

 pupation in the cracks between the bricks or at the base of the tree, where they can 

 also be killed in the same way. This mode of destruction is, take it all in all, the 

 next most satisfactory one we know of, though it must be frequently repeated. 



" We have largely experimented with a view of intercepting and destroying the 

 larv;e in their descent from the tree. Troughs, such as are used for canker-worms, 

 tarred paper, felt bands saturated with oil, are all good, and the means of destroying 

 large numbers. Care must be taken, however, that the oil does not come in contact 

 with the trees, as it will soon kill them, and when felt bandages are used tht^re should 

 he a strip of tin or zinc beneath them. The trouble with all these intercepting 

 devices, however, is that many larvie let themselves drop down direct from the tree, 

 and thus escape destruction." 



The London purple (one-half pound), flour (three quarts), and water (a barrel, forty 

 gallons), were mixed as follows : A large galvanized iron funnel, of thirteen quarts 

 capacity, and having a cross septum of fine wire gauze, such as is used for sieves, 

 also having vertical sides and a rim to keep it from rocking on the barrel, was used. 

 About three quarts of cheap flour were placed in the funnel and washed through the 

 wire gauze by water poured in. The flour, in passing through, is finely divided, and 

 will diffuse in the water without appearing in lumps. The flour is a suitable medium 

 to make the poison adhesive. The London purple is then placed upon the gauze and 

 washed in by the remainder of the water, until the barrel is filled. Three-eighths of a 

 pound of Loudon purple to one barrel of water may be taken as a suitable percentage. 

 Three-eighths of an ounce may be used as an equivalent in one bucketful of water. 



