202 



INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



ing tliis period, the weakened plants may continue to live until 

 winter, dying out before spring. In either case the farmer is 

 likely to be misled and attribute the loss to the weather."* 

 Clover is practically exempt from attack the first year as the 

 roots are not large enough to accommodate the insects, and it is 

 not until the second year that the plants are destroyed. 



Control. The only effective means of control suggested is 

 summer following as soon as the hay crop has been removed. 

 The field should then be plowed up at, once, before the larvae 

 have transformed to pupa?, so that the hot sun, and dry winds, 

 will dry out the roots of the clover and thus starve the larvae, 

 thereby preventing their developing and migrating to other 

 fields. Clover fields should not be allowed to stand over two 

 years in infested localities. Xo injury seems to be done in 

 pastures. A system of rotation in which the crop is mowed for hay 

 and seed the first year, and pastured and then broken up the 

 second year, should keep the pest under control. 



The Clover Stem-borer -j- 



Early in June one frequently finds the beetles of the Clover 



Stem-borer here and 

 there in the clover- 

 field. They are slen- 

 der, shining beetles, 

 about one-third of an 

 inch long, with a red 

 head and thorax and 

 bluish-black wing- 

 covers. The beetles 

 themselves seem to 

 do little or no harm. 

 Hibernating over 

 winter, they lay eggs 



.4 



FIG. 146. Clover stem-borer (Languria mozardi) : 

 the eggs natural size and magnified, the 

 beetle, larva, and pupa all much enlarged, 

 and above, a clover-stem with the larva at 

 work in it. (After Comstock.) 



* Quotations from F. M. Webster, The Clover-root Borer, Circular 119, 

 Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agr. 



f Languria mozardi Fab. Family Erotylidce. 



