THE EUROPEAN EARWIG AND ITS CONTROL. 9 



SONG BIKDS AND THE POISONED-BKEAD BAIT. 



The danger to song birds from the poisoned bread is very slight in 

 the spring. After the 1st of July, especially in dry seasons when 

 worms are not plentiful, this danger probably would increase. On 

 May 11 an attempt was made to see if song birds would feed on this 

 poisoned-bread bait. A narrow, recently spaded garden was selected 

 which was south of a small greenhouse and east of a high privet 

 hedge, where various birds were plentiful. Bits of this poisoned 

 bait, the size of a pea, were placed 2 feet apart and 4 inches from the 

 grass border, around the entire edge of the garden. The next morn- 

 ing the writer seated himself inside the greenhouse before daylight 

 and watched the birds from 3.15 until 5.45 a. m. Ten robins were 

 noted hopping along parallel to or crossing the lines of bait. They 

 confined themselves entirely to feeding on earthworms. A pair of 

 chipping sparrows were feeding on the soil surface nearly all the 

 time, and a pair of purple grackles stalked across the lines of 

 poisoned bait. In no case did these birds pay the slightest attention 

 to the conspicuous bits of green bread, and after two days none of 

 ihe particles were missing. No such experiment was tried in the late 

 summer when worms were less plentiful. Probably it would be 

 dangerous to use this mixture on ground where hens had free range. 



POISON SPRAYS. 



Poison sprays are not effective after July 1 because of the habit 

 developed by this insect of feeding on protected parts of flowers 

 and the very new shoots of various plants. During the early stages, 

 when larvae concentrate their feeding on certain varieties of plants, 

 these plants should be sprayed with arsenate of lead, 6 pounds to 50 

 gallons of water, care being taken that the young leaves especially 

 are covered. 



As this insect is known to feed somewhat on grass and clover it 

 might be advisable to spra}^ infested portions of lawns carefully with 

 arsenate of lead, but more tests are necessary to show the effective- 

 ness of this treatment. 



CONTACT SPRAYS. 



Contact sprays which would burn foliage or would be objection- 

 able near the houses on account of their odor were discarded. Any 

 spray used on plants when they are in full bloom tends to make the 

 petals of the blossoms fall. A contact spray which has given very 

 good results in experimental work at Newport is made as follows : 



Soft potash soap ounces 30 



Water do 96 



Nicotine sulphate. 40 per cent teaspoonfuls 20 



