GENERAL PRACTICE. ENEMIES. 



277: 



testing it on small parts before applying generally, as its strength varies ; then it can 

 be further diluted if it damage foliage. Fresh brewers' grains placed in small heaps are 

 good traps for slugs, and bran sprinkled with beer placed on a slate with another over 

 it, raised by a stone on one side, thus forming a roof and hiding-place, attracts the pests. 

 Hand-picking has the advantage of certainty, pursuing the practice on moist evenings. 

 Hollowed potatoes, apples, carrots, and other substances laid near fruits are good baits, 

 but to be of service they must be used in advance of the fruits ripening. 



Snails possess conspicuous spiral shells, and withdraw into them in cold weather or 

 very dry periods, remaining protected and motionless a long time. They are not nearly 

 so ravenous as slugs. The Common Snail (Helix aspera) is, perhaps, the one most 

 frequent in gardens, the Wood Snail (Helix nemoralis) and Garden Snail (Helix hor- 

 tensis) being found in hedgerows and tangled vegetation about gardens and orchards. 

 Hand-picking is the best remedy. Glow-worm larva) feed on them, also many kinds of 

 beutles. The song thrush devours hosts, cracking the shells on stones. 



Wireworm (Agriotes (Elater) lineatus). This beetle, the perfect insect of the larva? 

 known as wireworm, is popularly called Skipjack, Click Beetle, Snap Beetle, or Spring 

 Beetle. It is of a dull brown colour, with a greyish down over it, head and 

 thorax black. It may be found under moss and elsewhere throughout the year, and its 

 length is about f inch. In the perfect state the insect is harmless, but in the larval 

 condition very destructive. The wireworm is a pale dirty orange or tawny colour, 

 having six short legs. The body is formed of twelve scaly rings besides the head, which 

 is small, flattened, and darker than the body. When the larvae attain full size they 

 burrow deeply into the soil, each forming an earthen cocoon, in this become pupae, 

 usually in late summer, and the beetles emerge from the pupse state in little more than 

 a fortnight, though some may not emerge till spring or summer. 



The grubs or wireworms feed on the tender roots and stems of trees, gnawing them 

 just beneath the surface. This occurs with vines or others with fleshy roots. In borders 

 formed of turf wireworms sometimes do considerable mischief. All turf does not contain 

 wireworm, but " where there is any suspicion that wireworm is present, I have found it 

 an advantage to cut the turf and throw it grass side down, and leave it so till it gets a 

 sharp touch of frost ; this drives the wireworm to take shelter in the deeper soil, and the 

 frost has a beneficial action on the turf itself" (Mr. W. Thomson, " Journal of Royal 

 Horticultural Society," vol. xiii. page 56). Sward intended for cutting to form fruit borders 

 should have sheep penned on it, feeding them with cake, so that every inch of land may be 



