ENTOMOLOGY 65 



Doctor Felt has made extensive practical tests of jarring the 

 beetles from the vines and catching them on sheets or special forms 

 of catchers run under the plants or along the rows, and considers 

 this to be an effective plan of controlling the pest, the jarring of the 

 vines causing many of the beetles to fall in their efforts to escape de- 

 tection. A sheet of canvas placed on the ground beneath the vines 

 will serve to catch the beetles, but where work of this kind is done on 

 a large scale special apparatus must be provided. There is room for 

 considerable ingenuity in constructing catchers that will suit in- 

 dividual conditions. Concerning the value of jarring, Doctor Felt 

 said Our experience with collectors has demonstrated the prac- 

 ticability of catching the beetles, and we recommend this operation 

 for all badly infested sections, and that the collecting be begun as 

 soon as the beetles appear on the vines in any numbers, say where 

 there are 12 or 15 on one. The operation should then be repeated 

 at intervals of 5 to 7 days till the vines have been gone over two, 

 three or four times, depending somewhat on the number of insects 

 which are captured. It will be found that it is much easier to catch 

 the beetles on warm days, when it should be done, than in cool 

 weather. 



While the grape root-worm may be present in well cultivated 

 vineyards, it is much less destructive than in vineyards which receive 

 indifferent cultivation or total neglect. It has long been known that 

 much good may be done in controlling insects which live under- 

 ground by breaking open their pupal cells and crushing or otherwise 

 killing the helpless pupa3. After the larvae have become full grown 

 the great majority pupate but 2 or 3 inches below the surface of the 

 soil, 'and mostly within a radius of l 1 /^ or 2 feet from the base of the 

 vine. In this stage the insects are quite helpless, and are killed in 

 large numbers by a thorough breaking up of the soil around the base 

 of the plants. The details of this work are very important and re- 

 quire explanation. 



With the last cultivation in the fall the earth should be thrown 

 to the vines on each side, forming a ridge along the row. The fol- 

 lowing spring the Iarva3 in making their way toward the surface of 

 the soil to pupate will mostly work up in this ridge of earth, above 

 the surface of the roots, and there enter the pupal stage. The culti- 

 vation of the vineyard in the spring should be so adjusted that this 

 ridge of earth may be thrown away from the vines when most of the 

 insects are in the pupal stage, as one of the regular cultivations. An 

 implement known as a "horse-hoe," generally used in vineyards, 

 may be employed to great advantage in this work; but as it is not 

 practicable to remove the earth from immediately around the vino 

 owing to danger of injury, it is necessary to follow the horse-hoe at 

 once and remove the earth with a hand-hoe. The latter work is also 

 done as a part of the regular vineyard treatment to keep down weeds 

 and grass and is timed, so as to supplement the plowing with the 

 horse-hoe for the insect. Following the removal of the ridge of earth 

 from along the vines, it is well to keep the ground stirred at fre- 



