80 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



willow, and maple being particularly relished. On a warm evening 

 the beetles may often be heard feeding and their work may be 

 identified by the ragging of the foliage, as if it had been torn. 



Control. As allowing land to remain in grass for several years 

 is conducive to the increase of the grubs, a frequent rotation will 

 prevent their multiplication, the grass being followed by potatoes, 

 buckwheat, small grains, or some crop not seriously injured by 

 them. 



As the beetles remain in the pupal cells over winter and are 

 tender and not fully hardened, deep plowing and thorough har- 

 rowing in fall or early spring will kill large numbers of them 

 by breaking open the cells and exposing them to the weather 

 and by burying and crushing them. 



Swine will gorge themselves on grubs in badly infested land, 

 and if confined so that they will thoroughly root it over, will 

 very effectually rid it of them. Flocks of chickens or turkeys 

 following the plow will catch a considerable number of grubs, 

 as do the crows and blackbirds, which pay for the corn they eat 

 by the war they wage on grubs. 



The beetles may be jarred from the trees upon which they are 

 feeding in the cooler part of the night and collected, as is exten- 

 sively done in Europe. Lanterns hung over pans or tubs contain- 

 ing water with a surface film of kerosene placed near the trees on 

 which they feed, will catch large numbers on warm nights when 

 they are flying. 



Wireworms * 



Wireworms are hard, shining, slender, cylindrical, brown 

 larvae about three-quarters to 1 inch long, which bore into the 

 seed of corn, wheat and other grains, often necessitating 

 replanting, and also feed on their roots, as well as on potatoes, 

 turnips, and many garden crops. They are the young stage of 

 brownish beetles of the family Elateridce, which from their 

 habit of snapping their bodies up in the air are known as " click 

 beetles." The beetles are one-half to three-quarters inch long, 

 decidedly flattened, dark brown, often with darker markings, with 

 short heads, and shield-shaped thoraxes, as shown in Fig. 58. 

 Although the common wireworms look much alike, examination 



* Family Elateridce. 



