3 
yellowish white in color, with a pale brown head. Late in autumn they 
descend lower into. the earth, beyond the reach of frost, and in early 
spring they ascend, and each grub forms a little earthen cell in which 
it passes the winter. Later in the spring, in April or early May, they 
transform to pups, and in from two to four weeks afterwards the beetles 
emerge, dig their way out of the ground, and the destructive work is 
renewed. A single generation of the species is produced in a year, and 
about three weeks is the average duration of life for an individual insect. 
REMEDIES. 
The rose-chafer is one of our worst insect enemies to successfully 
combat. 
If it be possible to ascertain the favorite breeding ground of the 
species in any given locality, much damage may be averted by the de- 
struction of the insect in its larval and pupal states. This may be 
accomplished by plowing and cultivating the soil which the larve infest, 
or by saturating it with a strong kerosene-soap emulsion, these remedies 
being applied in May before the issuance of the insects. 
Almost every method that has ever been employed against other insects 
has been tried against the rose-chafer, and much has been written on 
this head, but a thoroughly successful remedy is yet to be discovered 
for the insects when they appear in excessive numbers. Every year or 
two some agricultural writer comes to the front with a new and success- 
ful remedy, but when tested on a large scale, in a badly infested vine- 
yard or orchard, these remedies are not found satisfactory. 
The difficulty is that any application that may be made is unsuccess- 
ful unless applied almost continually. The arsenites will kill the beetle, 
but are not of much value when the insects are abundant, because of 
the slow action of the poison. The blossoms are entirely destroyed 
before it takes effect, and the dead are constantly being recruited by 
others that come from the ground or fly from neighboring places. Every 
beetle on a plant might be destroyed one day, but on the day following 
the plant would be completely covered again. It is also difficult to 
spray a vineyard so that every bud and blossom will be coated with the 
poison. 
In the same manner the various compounds of copper, lime, kerosene, 
and pyrethrum, hot water, and other vaunted “sure’’ remedies have 
failed to come up to expectations when subjected to a rigid test. Some 
substances, pyrethrum for example, stupety the insects for a short time, 
but in a few minutes they recover and are soon feeding again. Hot 
water is not effective because of the impossibility of applying it in a 
spray or jet at a sufficiently high temperature to kill the insects. 
Decoctions of tobacco and quassia, hellebore, alum, kainit, and a 
number of proprietary remedies that have been tried, have no apparent 
effect on the rose-chafer. 
