MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 45 



it passes the winter. Later in the spring, in April or early 

 May, they transform to pupae, and in from two to four weeks 

 afterwards the beetles emerge, dig their way out of the ground, 

 and the destructive work is renewed. A single generation of 

 the species is produced in a year, and about three weeks is the 

 average duration of life for an individual insect. 



Fig. 18. (After U. S. Div. of Entomology). 



The beetles do not confine their ravages to any particular 

 portion of a plant, but consume blossoms, leaves, fruit, and all 

 alike (fig. 41, 42). Whole orchards are often devastated, and 

 the fruit crop of large sections of country destroyed. It is no 

 uncommon sight to see every young apple on a tree completely 

 covered and obscured from view by a sprawling, struggling 

 mass of beetles. 



REMEDIES. 



The rose-chafer is one of our worst insect enemies to combat 

 successfully. 



The beetles are said to dislike ordinary arsenical sprays and 

 avoid sprayed foliage. Experiments in New York, however, 

 resulted in killing the beetles with a spray of 8 pounds of 

 arsenate of lead to 100 gallons of water sweetened with 2 gallons 

 of molasses, as this proved attractive and was readily eaten. 



They may be jarred from trees on to sheets saturated with 

 kerosene, but these methods are tedious and must be practiced 

 daily in early morning or toward sundown to be effective. 



Small orchards may be protected, at least from the first arriv- 

 ing hordes of the chafers, by planting about them early flower- 



