92 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Rose beetle (Macrodactylus subspinosus Fabr.) . 

 This common, well known pest of roses in particular, and a con- 

 siderable number of other trees and plants whenever the insects 

 are excessively abundant, is more or less numerous from year to 

 year in certain favored breeding areas where the soil is almost 

 always of a sandy nature. Reports of unusual abundance and 

 corresponding injury by this species have been received from Staten 

 Island, Grahamsville and the vicinity of Rochester, N. Y. The 

 insects appear in swarms and not only attack rosebushes but extend 

 their depredations to the foliage of appletrees, even eating into the 

 young fruit at Rochester. At Grahamsville the insects swarmed 

 on fruit trees, displaying a marked preference for plum, the foliage 

 of which they completely skeletonized. 



This insect is a very difficult one to control and owing to the 

 fact that its favorite breeding grounds are usually in sandy, com- 

 paratively valueless land, the cost of plowing the same and destroy- 

 ing the insects thereby would amount to more than the loss incident 

 to their ravages. The beetles are extremely resistant to insecticides, 

 though Professor Webster found that a whale oil soap solution, 

 I pound to 2 gallons of water, was fairly effective in destroying 

 the pests, still it is liable to cause more or less injury to the foliage. 

 Dusting the plants with land plaster, ashes etc. may afford some 

 relief and highly valued small trees or shrubs might be protected 

 by mosquito netting. There is a bare possibility that thorough 

 spraying with arsenate of lead, particularly if it was used in 

 bordeaux mixture and a very large proportion of poison employed, 

 would afford a certain amount of protection and perhaps result in 

 the destruction of some beetles. Experience with other beetles 

 leads us to believe that the relief, if any is obtained, will be as much 

 from the beetles disliking the foliage as their being destroyed by 

 the poison thereon. 



Scurfy scale (Chionaspis furfura Fitch) . This species 

 is more or less prevalent in most sections of the State though rarely 

 abundant enough to cause much injury. The seasons of 1904 and 

 1905 appear to have been marked by an unusual multiplication and 

 corresponding injury, particularly in Dutchess county, where this 

 scale insect has been abnormally abundant and quite destructive. 

 It can be controlled as has been repeatedly pointed out by thorough 

 spraying with a contact insecticide about the latter part of May or 

 early in June, preferably selecting the time just after the majority 

 of the young have appeared and before they have covered them- 

 selves to any extent with the protecting scale. 



