300 



of those of the Macrodactylus. Since many Elaterid larvae are either 

 entirely or essentially carnivorous, that observed at Boscawen may 

 thus prove to be one of the natural enemies of the Macrodactylus. 



EEMEDIES. 



It has been assumed by most writers that we can not successfully at- 

 tack the Rose Chafer in any of its earlier states. To search for the eggs 

 in the ground would be impracticable. It does not, however, follow be- 

 cause of the poor success that has generally resulted from attempts to 

 destroy similar larvte that they can not be successfully destroyed. In the 

 case of the common European Cock-chafer (larva of Melolontha vulgaris 

 and hippocastani) and of our own White Grub {Lachno sterna fusca) the 

 methods adopted have consisted in plowing and hand-picking. The ex 

 periments made, however, on a similar larva with the kerosene-soap 

 emulsion, as narrated in Insect Life (Vol. I, p. 48) clearly show that we 

 have in this insecticide a means of successfully destroying the bulk of 

 the larvse of the Rose Bug wherever they are known to be sufficiently 

 abundantto justify such treatment. A thorough investigation should 

 be made in the direction of ascertaining the preferred breeding grounds 

 of the species, and it were rash to say here that we have no eflFectual 

 mode of preventing the insect, nothwithstauding the disfavor in which 

 this mode of warfare has been held in the past. 



It is evident, however, that for the present we should concentrate 

 our efforts on the destruction of the beetles especially when they first 

 issue from the ground and congregate in the garden on our roses, grape- 

 vines, and fruit trees. A brief statement of the various methods that 

 may be employed for this purpose may prove advantageous. Hand- 

 picking and killing the beetles either by crushing them or throwing 

 them into hot water, or water having a scum of kerosene upon it, has 

 proved useful and satisfactory in a limited way, as also the shaking 

 and knocking down of the beetles into pans or upon sheets saturated 

 or smeared with coal oil. These measures are best carried out and 

 most satisfactorily in the early morning hours and toward evening, as 

 the beetles are then more sluggish and not so quick to take wing as they 

 are during the heat of the day. White roses. Spiraeas, or Deutzias, 

 planted on a place, will attract great numbers of the beetles, and 

 thus not only facilitate the destruction of these last, but act as a kind 

 of protection to other i)lants. 



As to other topical applications intended to destroy the beetles, 

 whether directly or by poison taken with the food, the experience with 

 the arsenites is that they are of little avail, and the experience with 

 other materials, like hellebore and pyrethrum, has been so conflicting, 

 that we can not consider either of them reliable or satisfactory. Pyre- 

 thrum would seem to have given on the whole the most satisfactory re- 

 sults, and the following experience of Mr. E. S. Carman, editor of the 

 Rural New Yorker, would certainly show that it may be used advanta- 



