172 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



In 1888 their great numbers, even early in the year, 

 were a serious nuisance in many ways to dwellers in 

 the country, and but for the cold wet weather they 

 would probably have developed into an actual plague. 

 Somebody who came to see me was incredulous as 

 to the number to be found in the Eoses, so I picked 

 two large old withering blooms and counted the 

 occupants. I myself was astonished at the result : 

 there were, oddly enough, twenty-nine earwigs in 

 each Rose ! 



Bean stalks, or hollow lengths of last year's cow- 

 parsley stems laid on the ground or among the 

 plants, are good traps for earwigs ; they may be 

 blown out the next morning into boiling water, but 

 chickens will soon learn to pick them up very 

 quickly and be the better for them ; I always blow 

 the contents of my stalks into my garden pool, and 

 my pet trout take care that none escape. 



It is difficult to realise that earwigs can fly, but 

 in ejection from the stalks the wings, which are 

 wonderfully folded, being nine times the size of the 

 wing covers or cases, are sometimes blown out and 

 can then be seen. A white earwig may be found 

 occasionally, having just changed his skin. The 

 female is said to sit upon her eggs ; not of course 

 that she helps to hatch them — she only remains 

 with them to protect them from enemies, and will 

 collect and shelter them and the young ones when 

 scattered ; I have found her coiled over her eggs in a 

 little hollow part under the ground, once or twice. 

 Unless in very large numbers, these creatures do 

 but little harm to the Eoses. 



Certain Weevils (Qtiorhynclius) are often in small 

 collections a very destructive pest to newly budded 



