CHAPTER VII. 



FIELD WORK ON COLEOPTERA. 



When on the way to the "happy hunting grounds" 

 of beetles, it is to be remembered that the beetles most 

 easily found are the beneficial sorts, hence one must not 

 make haste to kill all the beetles that he finds. If you 

 wish to be sure of finding only harmful sorts, go to the 

 granary, the wheat bins, old meal chests, flour bins; 

 or out to the garden where potatoes, squash, or pumpkins 

 are growing. The beetles whose eggs are laid on the 

 bark or under the bark of trees, and whose larvas on 

 hatching burrow under the bark, are among our exceed- 

 ingly troublesome insects; but going after them would, 

 in the hands of an amateur, mean more harm than help 

 to the tree. Better leave this task to the woodpeckers 

 and the flickers ; they have more sense in such matters 

 than you and I have. On a summer evening, any 

 blundering June bug that comes thumping against the 

 screen door and goes sprawling on his back in the porch 

 comer^take him! It would be a sin not to dispose of 

 him immediately by way of the killing bottle. He may 

 be the very same villain that, earlier in the season, lived 

 underground and ate off the grain roots, or grass roots, 

 or geranium roots, leaving the top of the plants to die in 

 each case. If you are to find beneficial beetles go to the 

 trash pile in the back yard; to the old grass or leaf pile 

 which is partly decayed; to the manure pile in the alley; 

 to some unburied carcass of dog, hen, or mouse. Hang a 



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