110 FESTS OF GARDEN AND FIELD CROPS 



Leather Jackets ( Tipulidce) 



Occasionally field crops, such as wheat, grasses, or clovers, are 

 seriously injured by large numbers of naked grubs, the young stages of 

 several species of crane flies (Tipulidce). The adults are slender-bodied 

 very long-legged insects, often known as " gallinippers " or " giant 

 mosquitoes." The grubs are an inch or less in length, dark in color, 

 cylindrical, tough, the hind end blunt. They work just beneath the 

 surface of the ground, 'eating the roots, traveling from plant to plant 

 in the soil. 



The grubs are half grown in the fall, and winter in a dormant 

 condition. In spring growth is resumed. The adults emerge in early 

 summer, and prefer fields that have grown up to tall grasses or other 

 herbage. There is a second generation in summer, the adults laying 

 eggs again in grassland in September. 



Plowing before September 1 will place the field in such condition that 

 the adults will not lay eggs in it, and thus protect winter wheat from 

 injury. On grass or clover no effective means of avoiding or stopping 

 attack is known, except plowing up. 



Ants {Formicina) 



Frequently colonies of ants of one kind or another take up their abode 

 in gardens, and prove a nuisance. They can easily be killed by the 

 use of carbon bisulphide. With a pointed stick make several holes into 

 the hills, and then pour into each half an ounce or so of carbon bisulphide, 

 at once pressing the foot on the earth to close the hole. The fumes will 

 penetrate the ground and kill off all of the colony. 



In some sections of the Gulf states and in parts of California a persist- 

 ent and destructive ant has become established : the so-called Argen- 

 tine Ant {Iridomyrmex hwnilis Mayr). It is a nuisance through enter- 

 ing dweUings, and frequently is destructive in gardens. This species 

 tends to hunt for warm quarters as winter approaches. Advantage is 

 taken of this habit by providing a box of suitable decaying vegetable 

 matter in the garden, preferably a mixture of cotton seed and straw. 

 As this material decomposes it heats, and many colonies of ants, includ- 



