ENTOMOLOGY 137 



a considerable amount of damage, but the great variety of smaller 

 species which infest our gardens do not feed upon foliage or injure 

 growing plants. Sometimes they may be found upon unopened 

 flower buds, but they are only attracted by some sweet secretions on 

 the surface; as a rule their presence indicates that there is a colony 

 of aphids near by, which they take under their protection in order 

 to obtain from them the sweet honey-dew exuded by these minute 

 creatures. The worst injury for which they are responsible is the 

 establishment of colonies of Aphids upon the roots of many plants ; 

 the ants collect the eggs and take care of them during the winter and 

 when growth is sufficiently advanced carry them to the roots and 

 look after them during the summer, in order to have a constant sup- 

 ply of honey dew. These colonies increase rapidly, soon check the 

 growth of the plant and ultimately destroy it. Where ants' nests 

 abound, frequent digging and stirring of the soil, and in field culti- 

 vation repeated disking and harrowing, will get rid of many, or they 

 may be treated with carbon bisulphide; a small quantity should be 

 poured into the entrance of the nest or into a hole made with a stick 

 and quickly covered with earth ; the fumes will speedily kill all the 

 inmates. It is best to perform the operation towards evening when 

 all the ants are within the nest. This is a very effective mode of 

 getting rid of the large colonies which make mounds of rubbish on 

 lawns and in fields. 



Cutworms. At the beginning of the growing season the gar- 

 dener often finds in the morning young plants cut off near the sur- 

 face of the ground that the evening before were strong and healthy. 

 On stirring up the soil near by he may find hidden in the ground a 

 greasy-looking caterpillar, the culprit in the case. Cutworms, so 

 called from this habit, are the caterpillars of dull-colored night- 

 flying moths of a great variety of species and varying to some extent 

 in their habits. As a general rule they are partly grown at the 

 approach of winter and hide away in a torpid state during the cold 

 weather; when restored to activity by the warmth of spring, which 

 causes the buds to open and the growth of plants to begin, these 

 worms come out in search of food and attack any kind of tender 

 vegetation they meet with. They are nocturnal in their habits and 

 hide away during the hours of daylight under any shelter they can 

 obtain or just below the surface in the loose soil of newly made beds. 

 Owing to their destructive practice of cutting off a whole plant in 

 order to devour a portion of its foliage, they do a great deal of ap- 

 parently needless damage. 



After they have become fully grown they change to the 

 chrysalis stage in the ground and in early summer the moths appear, 

 many of them making their presence known in our houses by their 

 attraction to light. Before very long another brood of caterpillars 

 comes upon the scene, often more numerous and more destructive 

 than the first. Some of them climb up into fruit trees arid destroy 

 the foliage, others attack farm crops, vegetables, grape vines, the 

 plants in flower gardens, etc., while occasionally a single species ap- 



