atn utlfnc of t1)e artren. 45 



from other lawn pests, is its late appearance and 

 comparatively short duration. 



Frequently ants and the white grub the 

 larval grub of the May-beetle (Lachnosterna 

 fusca) cause no little damage to the lawn. 

 The latter is not satisfied with the intolerable 

 annoyance he causes in the imago form by 

 bumping against everything he sees, but already 

 begins in the pupa stage to devour the roots of 

 grasses and valuable plants, blighting everything 

 his voracious mandibles seize upon for prey. 

 Patches of dead and withered grasses proclaim 

 his depredations, when the turf should be closely 

 perforated with a metal rod to the depth of half 

 a foot, pouring caustic lime into the openings, 

 and resowing the surface a few days afterward. 



The ant is fond of building his cities on the 

 sward. These may be destroyed by perforating 

 the hills and pouring in a solution of crude car- 

 bolic acid, composed of one pound of acid to 

 two quarts of water. A gill of the liquid will 

 suffice for an ant-hill. " Tobacco insecticide 

 soap " is also efficacious. It is, moreover, excel- 

 lent, when sufficiently diluted, for destroying 

 ants where they have formed their hills in or 

 about plants. We thus see that a fine, velvety 

 sward, like very many other desirable things, 

 has its price ; and that, to carry out Loudon's 



