38 COLEOPTERA. 



enjoyment of their propensities, we must unite our efforts to 

 seize and crush the invaders. They must indeed be crushed, 

 scalded, or burned, to deprive them of life, for they are not 

 affected by any of the applications usually found destructive 

 to other insects. Experience has proved the utility of gather- 

 ing them by hand, or of shaking them or brushing them from 

 the plants into tin vessels containing a little water. They 

 should be collected daily during the period of their visitation, 

 and should be committed to the flames or killed by scalding 

 water. The late John Lowell, Esq., states,* that in 1823 he 

 discovered, on a solitary apple-tree, the rose-bugs " in vast 

 numbers, such as could not be described, and would not be 

 believed if they were described, or, at least, none but an 

 ocular witness could conceive of their numbers. Destruction 

 by hand was out of the question," in this case. He put 

 sheets under the tree, and shook them down, and burned 

 them. 



Dr. Green, of Mansfield, whose investigations have thrown 

 much light on the history of this insect, proposes protecting 

 plants with millinet, and says that in this way only did he 

 succeed in securing his grape-vines from depredation. His 

 remarks also show the utility of gathering them. " Eighty- 

 six of these spoilers," says he, " were known to infest a 

 single rose-bud, and were crushed with one grasp of the 

 hand." Suppose, as was probably the case, that one half 

 of them were females ; by this destruction, eight hundred 

 eggs, at least, were prevented from becoming matured. 

 During the time of their prevalence, rose-bugs are some- 

 times found in immense numbers on the flowers of the com- 

 mon white-weed, or ox-eye daisy ( Chrysanthemum leucanthe- 

 mum), a worthless plant, which has come to us from Europe, 

 and has been suffered to overrun our pastures and encroach 

 on our mowing-lands. In certain cases it may become expe- 

 dient rapidly to mow down the infested white-weed in dry 



* Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, Vol. IX. p. 145. 



