Eighth Report of the State Entomologist. 197 



this bulletin are still to be obtained, and may be bad upon application 

 to Director James Neilson of the Station, at New Brunswick. 



At the recent meeting of the Ass iciation of Economic Entomologists 

 at Washington, I). C, the presence of this fly in Ohio was reported. 

 Like most of the introduced European pests it will doubtless have an 

 extended distribution throughout the States of the Union, and also a 

 speedy one, from the case with which it may he conveyed in cattle carp 

 bv rail. 



Wibb-worms and Remedies foe Them. 



Eds. Country Ge.vtleman. — The wire-worms have become so plenty 

 in this county that it is nearly impossible to raise a respectable crop of 

 potatoes, corn or oats; they also work heavy on timothy meadows. All 

 remedies applied so far have failed to do away with them. Could not 

 some one of your readers who has experimented with them give us his 

 views on this subject? M. L., Potter Comity, Pa. 



Although I have not had the opportunity of experimenting with wire- 

 worms, or of making special study of means for controlling them, yet 

 the results of what has been done and reported by others, may be of 

 value to the above inquirer, and to a host of others who are troubled 

 with "the wire-worm" — one of the most annoying pests with which 

 the agriculturist has to do. 



Of the many methods that might be recommended for dealing with 

 these insects, and for mitigating their ravages to a greater or less extent, 

 the three following are named as probably the best and most efficient 

 that may be employed: 



1. Starvation. — When a crop is known to have been injured by 

 them, upon the removal of the crop, collect thoroughly and burn all the 

 material upon which the larvae might feed another season, for the larval 

 life is long-extended — it is believed, in most of the species, to three 

 years, and in some, it is claimed, even to five years. If the ground has 

 been cultivated for potatoes, or vegetables of any kind, gather in piles 

 all the stalks, stems, or vines, together with the roots, and burn them. 

 When timothy meadows, or grasslands of any kind, have been infested, 

 after feeding as closely as possible, plow thoroughly and fallow — as 

 also in the cultivated fields — during the autumn, with such additional 

 plowings and harro wings as shall best tend to destroy all vegetable 

 life. Gas lime, if procurable, may at this time, to great advantage, be 

 spread upon and washed into the soil. Repeat these operations the 

 following spring, and allow the field to lie fallow for the year. This 

 will certainly arrest the wire-worm attack. 



2. Buckwheat Remedy. — If the fallowing for the year be thought 

 an unnecessarily high price to pay for the arrest of the injury, it may per- 



