269 



Remedies for Wire'worins. 



Please tell me if there is a more eeonomical remedy to kill wireworii.s than salt? 

 If not, bow largo a quantity would it re<iuire to kill every one and not art'eet the next 

 crop ? Would fall plowing alone help the matter? — [T. E. Martin, New York, October 

 16, 1891. 



Reply. — Wireworms are the larvie of Click Beetles, and by destroying the beetles 

 before they have deposited their eggs, from which the wireworms issue in the spring, 

 tlu^ crop of worms will be greatly reduced. This affords the best means of limiting 

 tiu' damage resulting from their attacks. The use of salt is rather doubtful on ac- 

 count of the large amount necessary to cover a sufficient area to kill the worms, and 

 fallplowing would not be of the slightest benefit. A very etfectual and practical remedy 

 consists in attracting the beetles to poisoned bait. Some elaborate experiments in 

 this direction have been made by Prof. Comstock and show that the beetles can be 

 easily attracted to baits of clover which have been poisoned by wetting with one of 

 the arsenicals. These baits consist of small bunches of the freshly cut plant, al)Out 

 one-fourth pound in weight, distributed throughout the field and protected and kept 

 moist by being covered with boards. 



As an indication of the efficiency of this method it is stated that a series of twelve 

 traps yielded in three days, 482 beetles or an average or more than 40 per trap. These 

 traps should be put out during the early summer, and the beetles killed within the 

 majority of cases have not deposited their eggs and the consequent depredations of 

 their larv:e, the Wireworms, will be greatly diminished. It frequently hapi)ens that 

 the infested areas are rather limited in extent and do not cover the entire field, and 

 where this is the case the labor of distributing bait will be greatly lessened. The 

 bait should be renewed once or twice per week during the early part of summer. In 

 ]dace of the clover, corn-meal dough and sliced potatoes are used, but clover has 

 l)roven itself the most valuable. Where a field has become extensively infested by 

 the worms there is little which can be done so far as any actual experiment has 

 shown. It has been found that a heavy top dressing of kaiuit acts fiiirly well against 

 the Cutworms, and as this is a valuable fertilizer, no harm certainly could be brought 

 about by experimenting with it against AVireworms. If you are in position to try 

 this remedy it would give us pleasure to receive a report upon it from you. The 

 starving-out remedy is efficacious, but this means the total loss of one crop from the 

 infested field, as the land is left in fallow through one entire season. As the worms, 

 however, may remain for three years in the larval state, this method is sometimes 

 used. It has fre(iuently been claimed that by sowing the infested field to buckwheat ; 

 the worms will be starved out, as they will not eat of this crop. This, however, has 

 been disputed and we would hardly recommend it without more authoritative infor- 

 mation.*— [October 24, 1891.] 



Coleopterous Larvae in a Cistern. 



I send you herein larv?e from a neighbor's cistern brought me for identification. 

 They have been pumped up from the same cistern for several years in varying quanti- 

 ties ; what are they ? ' * * —[M. C. Read, Ohio, December 11, 1891. 



Reply. — *' * * While we are not able to determine these larvic definitely they 

 seem without doubt to belong to some beetle of the family Dascyllida-. Your neigh- 

 bor should search for beetles in and about his cistern and send them on. In that 

 way we can probably identify the species.* * * — [December 16, 1891.] 



A Longicorn Borer Jh Apple Roots. 



I send a worm and some pieces of apple-tree root. * * * This apple tree is five 

 years old, never very thrifty, which I supposed was in the kind of tree, Autumn Straw- 



*See also special note on p. 231 of the current volume. 



