HARMFUL TO CROPS. 



225 



Click Beetle. The wire worm is the cater- 

 pillar of the click beetle or skip jack. This 

 beetle is a longish insect, very strongly protected 

 about the head. It is so made that if it should 

 on its back, which amongst the furrows it 



CLICK BEETLES. 



must often do, it can spring in the air and alight 

 right side up. 



The wire worm is more destructive in dry soil 

 than in wet. 



The worst of the wire worm is that it requires 

 four or five years for its development, so that 

 the same field may be infested with it all the 

 year round, and year after year. The greatest 

 damage is done in spring and winter. 



The best remedy and perhaps the only 

 remedy is constant ploughing of the infested 

 fields, so that the rooks, starlings, peewits, and 

 wagtails can get at them. Especially do your 

 utmost to preserve the peewits. If the farmer 

 and gardener has a real friend, it is the peewit. 

 It is madness to thin these birds by killing them 

 or by taking their eggs. Do everything you can 



