70 EARWIGS. 
refuge in an old stack by day they have come forth in hordes at 
night and killed the plants by biting them through at the neck. A 
piece of sacking, that had by chance been left in the field, when 
picked up was found to harbour thousands of these pests, and this 
suggests a method of trapping them, though their numbers are so 
great that they are to be seen crossing the highways.”—(‘ The Times,’ 
July 6th, 1896.) 
In the past season Earwigs, if not more present than usual at Hop- 
leaves, have certainly been more observed; and on June 26th I 
received, per favour of the editor of the ‘Agricultural Gazette,’ men- 
tion from a contributor that the leaves of some of his Hop plants were 
very much eaten,—he believed by Earwigs,—and information was 
requested. On examination, it appeared that Harwigs were certainly 
the cause of the damage; and the following note was given by the 
same contributor in the ‘ Agricultural Gazette’ for July 8th :— 
‘« Since writing I have satisfied myself that Harwigs are the cause 
of the mischief. They swarm in the crevices of the poles, and in the 
curled Hop-lcaves, and come out at night to feed. . . . Yesterday 
I had about three hundred flower-pots, each with a wisp of straw in 
it, put on sticks, and this morning each flower-pot had from five to 
twenty-five Earwigs in it. I propose to put up about one thousand 
flower-pots, and hope in that way to lessen the attack.” * 
Probably no plan of trapping answers more surely than providing 
some snug and dark resort into which the Earwigs can creep and hide 
themselves during the daylight hours. (For details see Prevention 
and Remedies.) 
The following note regarding catching the pests at night by 
shaking them down on some tarred surface when they are out at 
feed is well worth notice, both with regard to Earwigs, and the small 
Clay-coloured Weevils (Otiorhynchus picipes), which do much mischief 
by night, and also the Cuckoo or Frog Flies (Huacanthus interruptus), 
which sometimes do great mischief by sucking away the juices, 
especially of the tops of the Hop-bines, by day. On July Ist Mr. A. 
Chittenden, writing from Posiers, Borden, near Sittingbourne, Kent, 
noted the mischief caused to Mangolds and Hop-leaves :— 
«We are much infested wlth Harwigs in this part of the country ; 
one of my fields of Mangolds has been nearly cleared by this pest. 
The Hop-gardens round are full of them; out of my nearly fifty acres, 
three have been almost cleared by them. Last night I caught about 
a hundred from two Hop-hills; this would be an endless task on so 
much ground.” 
* For above notes, and remedies suggested by EH. A. O., see the ‘ Agricultural 
Gazette’ for June 29th, p. 627; and also for July 6th, p. 8, for identification of 
attack. 
