INSECT PESTS. 



101 



berries, and the greatest profit is obtained from the early kinds. 

 Late kinds are not as profitable for it is very difficult to get the 

 price up very much for late berries, when it has once reached a 

 low point. 



INSECTS. Only a few insects are destructive to the Strawberry. 

 Perhaps the most injurious is the larv?e of the 



June Bug or May Beetle (Lachnosterna fusca) . This beetle lays 

 its eggs only in soil that contains grass or other roots for its young 

 to feed upon in May. The larva, the common large white worm, 

 always found in turf land, feeds two or three years in the soil be- 

 fore it changes to the perfect state. In land that has not been 

 cultivated more than one year, these worms remain, and as the 

 roots of the grasses are destroyed in plowing, they have nothing 

 to feed upon but the roots of such plants as may be grown. If 

 these plants be those of the Strawberry, of which the worms 

 seem particularly fond, many plants will be destroyed and others 

 very much injured. 



Remedy. The only certain remedy that can be given is to plant 

 only upon land that has been cultivated at least two years with 

 some other crop. 



The Root Borer (Anarsia lineatella.) 

 The moth (Fig. 75) lays its egg in the 

 crown of the plant in midsummer, hatch- 

 ing in a short time, and burrowing into 

 the root remains there during the 

 winter, causing the plant's death by 

 injuring the roots. Pulling and burning 

 the plants is the only remedy. The 

 worm sometimes bores in peach twigs, 

 as shown in the lower figure in the illus- 

 tration. 



The Crown Borer (Tyloderma f rag- 

 arm. Fig. 76, a, the larva that does the 

 boring ; 6, side view, and c, back view 

 of the beetle that lays the egg, all much 

 enlarged; destroys plants by boring into the crowns. Pulling and 

 bi ruing immediately after the fruit harvest, and before the per- 

 fect beetle comes out, is the only remedy, and it is not effective. 



There are a few other insects that at times do some harm 

 to the Strawberry plants or fruit, but none of sufficient import- 

 ance to be described here. 



DISEASES. The Strawberry, under favorable conditions, is 

 seldom affected by disease. When the plants have become weak- 

 ened by some cause, as over-bearing, want of food or poor 

 cultivation, a fungus attacks the leaves and often destroys them. 

 It first appears as a few round spots upon the leaf; these in- 

 crease until the leaf is nearly covered with them, when it 

 turns brown and dries up- 



