8 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 721. 
fungous or bacterial infection, and, in addition, flowers so protected 
are of superior appearance and quality. Bagging of grape clusters 
for protection against the rose-chafer is often practiced and affords 
protection against other insect pests as well. 
. USE OF LURE PLANTS. 
Small gardens may be protected, at least from the first arriving 
hordes of the chafers, by planting about them early-flowering plants 
that particularly attract the beetles. Spireeas, deutzias, andromeda, 
magnolias, blackberries, and white roses are especially useful as 
counter attractives. The beetles swarm on the flowers of these plants 
in preference to other flowers and small fruits, and when thus massed 
in great numbers their destruction by the use of collectors or other 
mechanical means is greatly facilitated. 
DESTROYING THE LARVA AND PUP. 
In addition to the use of any of the methods described above, 
injury in gardens may be appreciably lessened by preventing the 
breeding of the insects within or in the immediate vicinity of the 
garden. 
According to experiments conducted in Ohio during the years 
1893-94, the rose-chafer may be destroyed by taking advantage of 
the delicate nature of the pupx. This insect’ while in the pupal 
stage is so extremely sensitive to disturbance that, even with the 
greatest care, specimens were not successfully transferred to the 
laboratory for rearing, and all specimens disturbed in their pupal 
cells perished. Since both larvee and beetles are very tenacious of 
life, the pupal stage appears to furnish the most vulnerable period 
of attack, and large numbers of the pupe may be destroyed by 
stirring the breeding grounds, at the appropriate time, to a depth 
of 3 or more inches. In the latitude of northern Ohio the most 
favorable time for the application of this remedy is from about May 
25 to June 10. In more southern latitudes operations should be 
commenced earlier. 
All ground which might serve as a breeding place and which it 
is possible so to treat should be plowed and harrowed at the proper 
time in the spring. The least possible area of light sandy soil should 
be left in sod, only the heaviest land being used for grass. 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
Whatever practice of a remedial nature is undertaken, whether 
collecting or spraying, should be begun at the first onset of the 
insects’ attack and continued until their disappearance. Nor should 
work be confined entirely to those useful plants the preservation 
of which is desired. Many weeds and wild plants, notably the ox-eye 
daisy and sumac, are special favorites of this species, and when prac- 
ticable the beetles’ should be destroyed on them to prevent their 
spreading to cultivated land. 
If persistent and combined effort on the part of fruit growers and 
truck growers of limited regions subject to infestation were made 
against this insect, its numbers might in a few seasons be so dimin- 
ished that practical immunity from injury would be secured for 
several years. 
1 Webster, F. M. The rose chafer or rose bug: how to deal with it. Jn 27th Ann. Rept. 
Ohio State Hort. Soc. f. 1893-94, p. 8T—-91. 1894. 
O 
