THE STRAWBEKRY BEETLE. 179 



tackled them. Both these articles being poison, great 

 care must be taken to keep the preparation labelled and 

 beyond the reach of children and domestic animals. 



Handpicking, though a tedious task, might with advan- 

 tage be resorted to in small places, but this process is 

 too slow and tedious for owners of large orchards to 

 adopt, more especially for those who grow fruit for a 

 living. 



If handpicking be resorted to, the best plan is to place 

 some strips of old blanket alongside the plants and well 

 in under the leaves ; having done this, collect the leaves 

 together in a bunch and give them a short sharp shake, 

 which will generally dislodge the perfect beetles, when 

 these can be destroyed by boiling water. 



Beetles belonging to this family are most tenacious of 

 life, and will even feign death for many minutes, so that 

 to effectually destroy them they must be either crushed, 

 burned, or scalded, whichever plan comes readiest to 

 hand. When the grub is in the centre of the plant, it 

 cannot, as a rule, be dislodged by the hand without 

 injury to the plant itself, and in this case pouring liquids 

 into the centre must be resorted to. 



In the case of raspberries, which I am informed it also 

 attacks, the canes, where not required, should always be 

 destroyed by burning, and a similar treatment to that 

 recommended for the strawberry should be adopted. 



In dealing with this pest, also with many others of a 

 like nature, a great deal will depend upon a judicious 

 treatment of the soil, also of the mulching, the latter 

 being a very common method of transmitting pests of 

 various kinds from one plant to another. For many 

 kinds of plant bugs, and which also infest strawberries, 

 mulching answers many purposes, viz., to protect the 

 roots of plants from the heat of the sun, and to form a 

 trap in which certain of these disgusting insects deposit 

 their eggs, and which, when the crop is gathered and the 

 hottest of the weather is passed, can be placed in heaps 

 and burned, also to protect the strawberries from injury 

 from dirt and other causes. 



N2 



