SOIL PESTS 9d 



as three to five years, encroaching on field and garden 

 crops, attacking potato, carrot, beet, parsnip, etc. They 

 also tunnel up into the stalks of the tomato, a plant 

 which is tolerably immune from the depredations of 

 insects. For natural remedies we must mainly depend 

 on moles, which eat the wireworm summer and winter ; 

 and insectivorous birds, notably the meadow pipit and 

 the starling, whose beaks are specially suited for getting 

 out soil insects. Where a field has been under grass for 

 a length of time, and is being broken up for cultivation 

 a strong dressing of gas lime should be given in the 

 winter, followed in the spring by 3 ozs. of naphthalene 

 to the square yard, previous to sowing or planting. This 

 should be effective against mre worms. The pupa of 

 this pest is white and easily injured by the lajdng open 

 of the soil, so that turning poultry on to the ground where 

 newly dug is useful. The beetles usually hatch in June 

 and July. (See Plate 21.) 



The Cockchafer or May bug {Melolontha vulgaris) is 

 quite as bad as the foregoing, and its " white grub " is 

 looked upon with disgust whenever it is turned up from 

 beneath the roots of meadow grass, where it does its fell 

 work for a space of three years. It also attacks fruit 

 trees, as well as hops, flowers, corn, and vegetables. 



There are several kinds of Chafer beetles, including the 

 Garden, Rose, and Summer Chafers, all of which are 

 inimical to the roots of crops. The sketch of Melolontha 

 vulgaris and its larva and pupa will given an idea of the 

 form of them all. It is the largest of this family and 

 measures 1| inches from the tip of the snout to the end 

 of the abdomen, and although the body is black, it is 

 so covered with a yellow down that when newly out it 

 has a hght appearance. The female burrows into the 

 earth, and lays her eggs in batches of ten to twenty-five, 

 there being perhaps seventy in all. The larva and pupa 

 are quite white. During their long hfetime these grubs 

 do an incalculable amount of damage to vegetation, and 



