GARDEN PESTS 63 



a hold all infested leaves should be burned. Soot may 

 also.be dusted on the outside leaves. (See Plate 14b.) 



Asparagus. The king of vegetables is liable to attack 

 mainly from two insects, the Asparagus Beetle and the 

 Asparagus Fly. The Beetle (C. asparagi) is yellow and 

 black in colour, with the markings of a cross on the wing- 

 cases, whence it is sometimes called the cross-bearer. 

 Eggs are laid in June on the heads and shoots, and later 

 upon the feathery foliage. There are several broods in a 

 season, according to the weather, heat of course causing 

 them to breed more rapidly. The larvae eat into and 

 disfigure the heads as they come up, both beetle and larvse 

 also gnawing the stems and devouring the round green 

 seeds, leaving a sticky brown mess all over the plants. 

 During the winter the beetles go to sleep under stones 

 and in rubbish, particularly old turf, the cosy refuge of 

 so many thousands of small insects in the cold weather. 

 Infested heads should be burned, and the beds dusted 

 with powdered lime. Ladybirds and Lacewing Flies 

 devour large numbers of these larvae, whilst poultry and 

 ducks will also readily consume them and are not harm- 

 ful to the asparagus foliage. Again, hand picking, if 

 tedious, is at least effective. (See Plate 13.) 



The Asparagus Fly (P. poeciloptera) is glossy brown 

 in appearance, the wings having waved markings of the 

 same colour. They emerge out of the ground from April 

 onwards until the middle of July and lay their eggs beneath 

 the scales of the new heads, the maggots afterwards boring 

 into the plant and working downwards. Small wooden 

 rods coated with a mixture of tar and cartgrease will 

 trap the flies in considerable numbers and keep the pest 

 within bounds. (See Plate 13.) 



Beet and Mangold Pests. These crops are subject 

 to the attack of a common day-flying moth known as the 

 Silver Y (P. gamma) from a conspicuous mark on each 

 fore-wing like the Greek letter y. The eggs are laid, as 

 is the case with most moths, on the under side of the leaf, 



