INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1904. 169 



patches and elsewhere. The wire worm beetles, as we know, are 

 the source of one of our most destructive pests, both in the garden 

 and on the farm. All weevils are exceedingly injurious, and the 

 rest of the list needs no comment, except possibly spiders and sow 

 bugs. Spiders may be beneficial in killing injurious insects, but 

 their webs also catch beneficial insects, forms which live as para- 

 sites or prey upon the injurious forms. Sow bugs, which belong to 

 the class Crustacea and are not insects, sometimes do great damage 

 in green houses by eating tender roots and plants, and are always 

 obnoxious things to have in the vicinity of the house. The carrion 

 beetles or burying beetles are useful to man. Snails are a pest of 

 the flower bed. Angle worms, of which the above toads con- 

 sumed a small amount, are beneficial in draining soil and turning 

 it over, but sometimes are unpleasantly injurious in flower beds 

 and on lawns and about walks. 



Our friend, the toad, eats grape and celery caterpillars, tomato 

 worms, the destructive cabbage worm, cucumber beetles and can- 

 ker worms. Some bee-keepers, alas, say they occasionally eat bees. 

 Upon this point Mr. Russell, President of the Minnesota Bee- 

 keeper's Association, tells me that he has fed a toad by throwing 

 drones at him, the toad never missing a drone, but catching each 

 one most adroitly, and with but the slightest evident effort. On 

 account of this one apparent weakness, and even the best of us 

 have our weaknesses, as well as for other reasons, bee-keepers 

 should keep their hives off the ground. It is well to remember, 

 however, that toads do most of their feeding at night when bees 

 are not active. We have never witnessed any such reprehensible 

 act on the part of the toad. 



Mr. Kirkland, in summarizing his work, says, excludmg the 

 five per cent of unidentified animal matter, that the food of the 

 above toads represented 11 per cent of beneficial forms, 22 per cent 

 neutral forms, or forms which affect the gardener or the farmer 

 neither one way nor the other, and 62 per cent of very injurious 

 forms. Let us give all credit, then, to the toad for his good work, 

 and let us encourage his presence in our gardens as well as in our 

 greenhouses in every way possible. Perhaps the worst enemy the 



