Insect Pests and Fungoid Diseases. 



413 



feeding at night. The mature caterpillars are about one and a-half inches 

 in length, brownish or greyish in colour, with spots and bands of darker 

 colouring. 



Treatment : On small areas, hand pick- 

 ing at night is an effective though very slow 

 method of dealing with these pests, and is 

 only practicable in a crop where the plants 

 have been set out at some distance apart, 

 such as cabbages or tomatoes. To discover 

 the caterpillars, the ground immediately 

 round the plants is worked about with a 

 blunt stick. 



A useful bait which will destroy many 

 consists of bunches of fresh-cut clover or 

 other greenstuff, previously sprayed with 

 arsenate of lead, laid about amongst the 

 plants. 



On small areas bi-sulphide of carbon would prove very useful if injected 

 in the ground at intervals amongst the plants. 



" Ringing "the plants with kainit or muriate of potash not only acts as a 

 fertilizer but is said to repel the caterpillars. A mixture of three parts of 

 finely powdered lime to one of soot freely sprinkled close to the plants and 

 well hoed in stimulates growth, as well as to some extent protecting them 

 from attack. Frequent light top-dressings of any stimulating fertilizer 

 would probably have a beneficial effect. 



Land which has been subject to attack should be dressed with gas-lime 

 and deeply worked as soon as the crop is cleared, or it should be treated 

 with one of the advertised soil fumigants before planting. 



WIREWORMS. Wireworms are probably more dreaded by the gardener 

 than any other pest by which his plants are afflicted. There is scarcely a 



1, Caterpillar of the Turnip or Com- 

 mon Dart Moth, Agrostis segettim. 



2, Caterpillar of the Heart and Dart 

 Moth, Agrostis exciamationis. 



1 and la, Agriotes lineatiis, 



2 and 'la, Agriotes sputator. 



3 and 3a, Agriotes obscurus. I 



4, Wireworm, Larva of Agriotes lineattts. 



5. Pupa. 



j- Natural size and magnified. 



Natural size. 



crop which does not suffer more or less from their ravages, their attack 

 being frequently deadly in effect. They are the larvae of beetles popularly 



