15 
go deeper into the soil, coming to the surface again in spring 
and making for themselves rude, earthen 'cells in which they 
change to the pupa state (//). Three or four weeks later they 
again change, and the perfect beetle comes forth. Thus there 
is but one brood a year. The insect lives in the beetle state 
about a month. 
As already intimated this is a difficult pest to deal with. 
Spraying or dusting with pyrethrum or insect powder has been 
found to stupefy the beetles, temporarily, and this substance 
may occasionally prove useful in protecting fruits. A single 
rose bush or grape vine may be covered with mosquito netting, 
but of course this is impracticable on a large scale. In regions 
where the beetles are not overwhelmingly abundant, thorough 
spraying of grape vines and fruit trees with a wash made by 
adding three or four pecks of freshly slacked lime and a quart 
of crude carbolic acid to fifty gallons of water, has been reported 
by several fruit growers to be successful, although on the other 
hand, some have tried it and reported unsuccessful results. A 
better method, found efficient in Rhode Island, is in the case of 
grapes to spray the buds before the blossoms open with i lb. of 
Paris green in 50 gallons Bordeaux mixture. In New Jersey 
hand picking has been resorted to as the only sure remedy, 
the insect being collected in the cooler hours of the day. 
The oyster-shell bark-louse* is an old and well-known ene- 
my of the apple tree which seems to be very generally distributed 
throughout the state, as I have found it destructively abundant 
as far north as Littleton, and in various parts of the central and 
southern portions of the state. This insect occurs upon the 
bark of the trunk, branches, and twigs, appearing as a sort of 
grayish incrustation, as represented in Fig. 4. If one of these 
Fig. 4. Oyster-shell bark-louse. 
scales be pulled off early in spring, there is likely to be found 
beneath it a mass of yellowish or whitish eggs. 
*Mytilaspis pomoruui. 
