THE GRAPE IN KANSAS. 131 



A TROUBLESOME INSECT THE ROSE-BUG. 



With the blooming of the grape, an awkward, long-legged, light-brown beetle , 

 about one-third of an inch in length, frequently appears in enormous swarms, at 

 first devouring the blossoms, then the leaves, reducing them frequently to mere 

 skeletons, and later attacking the young fruit. By the end of July these unwel- 

 come visitors disappear as suddenly as they come. 



Though now distinctively a grape pest, it was first known as an enemy of the 

 rose, whence its name, "rose-bug," or rose-chafer. It attacks also the blossoms 

 of all other fruit-trees and of many ornamental trees and shrubs, and, in fact, in 

 periods of great abundance stops at nothing garden vegetables, grasses, cereals, 

 or any green thing. At such times plants appear a living mass of sprawling beet- 

 les, clustering on every leaf, blossom, or fruit. 



From a bulletin by C. L. Marlatt, of the department of agriculture, it is 

 learned that the beetle thus described occurs from Canada southward to Vir- 

 ginia and Tennessee and westward to Colorado, but is particularly destructive in 

 the eastern and central portions of its range, notably in New Jersey, Delaware,, 

 and to a less extent in New England and the Central states. 



As remedies, the arsenicals are available only when the beetles are not very 

 numerous. Otherwise, their ranks are constantly recruited by newcomers, and, 

 under these circumstances, all insecticides, however effective ordinarily, are un- 

 available. When this is the case, the only hope is in collecting the beetles, or in 

 covering and protecting plants with netting, or, later, in bagging grapes. Ad- 

 vantage may be taken of their great fondness for the bloom of spirea, and rows 

 of these flowering shrubs may be planted about the vineyard to lure them and 

 facilitate their collection. 



They may be gathered from these trap plants, or the grapes themselves, in large 

 hand beating nets, or by jarring into large funnel-shaped collectors, on the plan 

 of an inverted umbrella. The latter apparatus should have a vessel containing 

 kerosene and water at the bottom, to wet and kill the beetles. 



THE ROSE-CHAFER. 



This beetle measures seven-twentieths of an inch in length. Its body is slen- 

 der, tapers before and behind, and is entirely covered with very short and close 

 ashen-yellow down; the thorax is long and narrow, angularly widened in the 

 middle of each side, which suggested the name subspinosa, or somewhat spined ; 

 the legs are slender, and of a pale red color; the joints of the feet are tipped 

 with black, and very long. This is one of the most common and destructive in- 

 sects known to infest the grape in this country. In some parts of the Eastern 

 states it makes its appearance in such vast numbers that it is impossible to stay 

 its ravages. It does not seem to be at all fastidious in regard to its food, as it 

 feeds indiscriminately upon nearly all kinds of plants. If it has a choice, it is 

 not a very particular one, as I have found it feeding upon the flowers of the cherry, 

 grape, oxeye daisy, sumac, rose, and upon all the different species and varieties 

 of the spirea; and when the flowers of these are gone it will attack the leayes. 

 I had, one season, about 100 cherry trees entirely stripped of their leaves by this 

 voracious little pest. It prefers, however, the flowers of plants to their leaves, 

 and it usually makes its appearance in the spring, about the time the grapes 

 come into bloom. It eats the flowers with avidity, and when it appears in large 

 numbers makes short work of the entire crop. 



