PEA WEEVIL EARWIGS- WOODLICE 387 



away and lays its eggs on other Pea blossoms. Our illustration 

 shows the Pea Weevil, natural size and magnified. It occasionally 

 happens that the beetles do not emerge from the Peas until after 

 the sowing time in spring, so that the pest is actually planted with 

 the seed. The early sowing of Peas has been recommended as a 

 preventive against the Weevil, as by early sowing the insects are 

 subjected to adverse conditions of weather. Another s recommenda- 

 tion is that infected Peas should be plunged into boiling water for 

 one minute before sowing ; but care must be exercised, or the Peas 

 will be killed with the Weevils. 



EARWIGS are the dread of the florist, for they spoil his best Dahlias 

 and Hollyhocks, and are too partial to Chrysanthemums. They are 

 easily trapped, as they like to go up to a high, dry, dark retreat ; 

 hence a bit of dry moss in a small flower-pot, inverted on a stake, 

 will entice them into your hands ; and if you are determined to keep 

 down Earwigs, this way is sure, though, perhaps, not easy, because it 

 must be followed up morning and evening from the beginning of 

 June onwards. The hollow stems of the Bean make good Earwig 

 traps, as indeed do hollow stems of any kind, for they love to creep 

 into close, dark retreats after their nocturnal meal and the cultivator 

 who has resolved that he will not be eaten up by Earwigs needs only 

 to persevere, and he may depend on trapping every Earwig within 

 the boundaries. Unfortunately, they use their wings freely, and so 

 travel from the sluggard's garden to find ' fresh fields and pastures 

 new.' 



WOODLICE are terrible destroyers, but are easily caught, and may 

 be completely eradicated by perseverance. When a frame or pit is 

 infested, they may be destroyed wholesale by pouring boiling water 

 down next the brickwork or the woodwork in the middle of the day. 

 If this procedure does not make a clearance, recourse must be had 

 to trapping. In common with Earwigs, they love dryness, darkness, 

 and a snug retreat ; but as a mere home suffices for Earwigs, a 

 home with food is demanded by Woodlice. Take a thumb pot, 

 quite dry and clean. In it place a fresh-cut slice of Potato or Apple, 

 fill up with dry moss, and turn the whole thing over on a bed in 

 a frame or pit. Thus you have devised a Woodlouse trap, and 

 next morning you may knock the vermin out of it into a vessel 

 full of hot water, or adopt any other mode of killing that may be 

 convenient. Fifty traps may be prepared in a hundred minutes ; 



