172 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE CHAP. 
In 1888 their great numbers, even early in the year, 
were a serious nuisance in many ways to dwellers in 
the country, and but for the cold wet weather they 
would probably have developed into an actual plague. 
Somebody who came to see me was incredulous as 
to the number to be found in the Roses, so I picked 
two large old withering blooms and counted the 
occupants. I myself was astonished at the result: 
there were, oddly enough, twenty-nine earwigs in 
each Rose ! 
Bean stalks, or hollow lengths of last year’s cow- 
parsley stems laid on the ground or among the 
plants, are good traps for earwigs; they may be 
blown out the next morning into boiling water, but 
chickens will soon learn to pick them up very 
quickly and be the better for them; I always blow 
the contents of my stalks into my garden pool, and 
my pet trout take care that none escape. 
It is difficult to realise that earwigs can fly, but 
in ejection from the stalks the wings, which are 
wonderfully folded, being nine times the size of the 
wing covers or cases, are sometimes blown out and 
can then be seen. A white earwig may be found 
occasionally, having just changed his skin. The 
female is said to sit upon her eggs; not of course 
that she helps to hatch them—she only remains 
with them to protect them from enemies, and will 
collect and shelter them and the young ones when 
scattered ; I have found her coiled over her eggs in a 
little hollow part under the ground, once or twice. 
Unless in very large numbers, these creatures do 
but little harm to the Roses. 
Certain Weevils (Otiorhynchus) are often in small 
collections a very destructive pest to newly budded 
