REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 211 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



crops. An undetermined injury referred to as ' Dead Heads ' by settlers also occurred 

 rather widely in Manitoba just before wheat harvest. Unfortunately, no cause for 

 this injury which involved patches of from two to fifteen feet in diameter, could be 

 discovered by my correspondents, who made investigations in accordance with sugges- 

 tions sent to them. Neither fungus nor insect enemy could be discovered. Mr. Geo. 

 H. Greig, Secretary of Live Stock Associations of Manitoba, wrote that the injury 

 ceased about August 20, and that in speaking with the farmers in the district where 

 this occurred, the opinion seemed to prevail that new land was worse affected than old, 

 and he estimated the loss in the fields which showed moet of the injury at about 5 

 per cent. 



Among insects which have attracted attention by their numbers on cereal crops 

 ciuring the season of 1904, mention may be made of the following: — 



WiREWORMS. — Wireworms in grain fields were complained of in New Brunswick, 

 near St. Jchn, on Prince Edward Island, at Kensington, and at Qu'Appelle in the 

 North-west Territories. These troublesome larvae, for which up to the present time 

 no satisfactory remedy has been discovered, did much harm by eating into the young 

 sprouting grains of wheat. It was noticed by Mr. William Henley, of Qu'Appelle, 

 that oats sown on the same land where wheat was being destroyed, were not injured by 

 the wireworms. The destruction of the wheat, however, was considerable. He writes 

 under date June 20: — 'Wireworms are destroying our wheat crop in the Wascana 

 District (T. 13, E.. 15, W. of 11., 30 miles south of Qu'Appelle). This is heavy hum- 

 ir.iocky land full of humus. I broke a hundred acres last summer, disked it in the fall 

 and harrowed it before and after seeding this spring. I shall not get over half a crop 

 from it. I am breaking another hundred acres this summer, and should like to avoid 

 this trouble next season, if possible. Would more cultivation in the spring have any 

 effect on this insect, or would you recommend putting on extra seedl I 

 don't think this worm does much harm after the wheat has germinated. We had 

 two weeks of cold weather this spring aftei- seeding, and the seed did not 

 start to grow for some time. This was when the wireworms did most harm.' 



A remedy which has given a measure of satisfaction to those who have tried 

 it, is to plough the land twice in autumn — once in August, when the wireworms 

 (the larvse of several species of Click Beetles) change to the pupal condition, in which 

 tiroy are soft and easily injui-ed, and then again in Octo'ter or later, when the perfect 

 beetles have formed but are still too soft and delicate to stand the cold of autumn 

 and winter if their pupal cell is broken. This late ploughing also exposes them to 

 many enemies. In the North-west, as Mr. Henley has pointed out, it is very rarely 

 possible to plough land as late as October. The present open season, nearly up to the 

 cud of November, gives farmers a good opportunity to try this remedy. It has been 

 i.'oticed that oats are not so much attacked as wheat ; and barley and rye are even less 

 so, therefore, when land is found to be badly infested with wireworms, it will be 

 Eidvisable to sow other crops than wheat. 



Cutworms in Grain. — In tlie middle of July the ' Nor'- West Farmer ' referred to 

 the Division several complaints of injury to wheat crops by cutworms (Plate I, fig. 1), 

 and specimens were received from Manitonas, Man. These proved to be the Eed- 

 backed Cutworm (Paragrotis ochrogaster, Gn.), which is a very general feeder, but, 

 as a rule, restricts itself in a large measure to the weeds growing in grain crops, instead 

 cf attacking the grain. Occasionally, however, as in the oat crops of Manitoba in 

 1901, widespread injury was done by this cutworm; and, in 1900, as well as in 1901, 

 several undoubted instances were reported of its attacking wheat. This bad habit, 

 however, mtist be considered exceptional; and it is particularly to low vegetables and 

 root crops that the Red-backed Cutworm does harm. The Glassy Cutworm (Hadena 

 devastatrix, Brace), a greenish white caterpillar with a red head, which works beneaiii 

 the ground, damaged wheat fields seriously in the neighbourhood of Virden, Man. 



In grain fields it is difficult, as a rule, to appl,v remedies for cutworms; but, aa 

 many of the different kinds assume a maxciiing habit as they clear away the food be- 



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