62 MEANS FOR ARRESTING THE PROGRESS OF 



near ground so covered. Insects which deposit their eggs in the soil 

 cannot easily do so when the soil is very hard, and may therefore be 

 enticed to deposit them in portions of soil made soft on purpose. Thus 

 boxes or large pots filled with rotten tan, sunk in the soil, form an ex- 

 cellent nidus for the eggs of the cockchafer, and will prevent that 

 insect from laying them in the common soil of a garden. Hoeing or 

 digging patches of soil here and there throughout the garden or plan- 

 tation will have a similar effect, to a certain extent ; and after some 

 weeks, when the larvae are some lines in length, the soil may be sifted, 

 and the insects taken out and destroyed. While loosening the naked 

 soil serves as a trap for the cockchafer, covering that soil with straw is 

 found to act as a defence against them ; and hence one of the principal 

 uses of mulching rose-gardens, tree-nurseries, and other cultivated 

 grounds. 



Catching the Perfect Insect, so as to Prevent it from Depositing its 

 Eggs. Though this cannot be done to any great extent with winged 

 insects, such as the butterfly, moth, and some flies, yet it may be em- 

 ployed in the case of the cockchafer, the rose-beetle, &c., which may 

 be collected by children ; and in the case of wingless insects, such as 

 wood-lice, ants, and earwigs, which may be enticed into hiding-places 

 by food, or by other means. A piece of boiled potato placed in a 

 pot and covered with dry moss, is a capital trap for wood-lice, or 

 earwigs. A piece of fruit similarly covered entices ants. Earwigs 

 may also be caught by placing hollow bean-stalks in their haunts, to 

 which they will retire in the day-time, when they can be shaken out 

 of the stalks into a vessel of water. A simple and effectual trap for 

 both wood-lice and earwigs is composed of two pieces of the bark of 

 any soft rough-barked tree, such as the elm, placed inside to inside, so 

 as to leave in the space between them a very slight separation, tying 

 the two pieces of bark together by a piece of twig, part of which is 

 left as a handle, and laying the trap where the insects abound. They 

 will retire in the day-time between the pieces, which can be quickly 

 lifted up by the twig and shaken over a vessel of water. No bait is 

 required for this trap, the more tender part of the bark being eaten 

 by the wood-lice and the earwigs. The same bark- trap will also serve 

 for millipedes, beetles, and, to a certain extent, for ants. The most 

 effective mode of destroying ants in frames or hothouses is by placing 

 toads in them. One toad will be sufficient for a frame or a hothouse. 

 The toad places himself by the side of an ant-path, and by stretching 

 out his tongue as the insects pass him, draws them in and devours 

 them. He is even fonder of wood-lice than of ants. Other such in- 

 sects may likewise be destroyed wholesale by boiling water, crushing 

 them with the back of the spade, &c. 



Destroying the Perfect Insect. This is effected in the open air by 

 <he use of washes or decoctions in the case of the aphides ; or, in the 

 case of the wasp, by hot water being poured into its nest, or sulphur 

 or gunpowder being burnt in it, or by inserting a rag dipped in tur- 

 pentine, or pouring tar into the hole, and digging the nest out ; or by 

 pouring salt and water into ants' nests ; or by lighting a fire over the 



