82 INSECTS. 



afterward. They cast their skins several times, leaving them extended 

 and fastened on the leaves ; after the last moulting, they lose their 

 semi-transparent and greenish color, and acquire an opaque yellowish 

 hue. They then leave'the rose bushes, some of them slowly creeping 

 down the stem, and others rolling up and dropping oflf, especially 

 when the bushes are shaken by the wind. Having reached the 

 ground, they burrow to the depth of an inch or more in the earth, 

 where each one makes for itself a small oval cell, of grains of earth, 

 cemented with a httle gummy silk. Having finished their transforma- 

 tions, and turned to flies, within their cells, they come out of the 

 ground early in August, and lay their eggs for a second brood ot 

 young. These, in turn, perform their appointed work of destruction 

 in the autumn ; they then go into the ground, make their earthen 

 ceUs, remain therein throughout the winter, and appear in the winged 

 form, in the following spring and summer. 



During several years past, these pernicious vermin have infested 

 the rose bushes in the vicinity of Boston, and have proved so injurious 

 to them, as to have excited the attention of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society, by whom a premium of one hundred dollars, for the 

 most successful mode of destroying these insects, was offered in the' 

 summer of 1840. About ten years ago, I observed them in gardens, 

 in Cambridge, and then made myself acquainted with their transforma- 

 tions. At that time, they had not reached Milton, my former place 

 of residence, and have appeared in that place only within two or three 

 years. They now seem to be gradually extending in aU directions, 

 and an effectual method for preserving our roses from their attacks 

 has become very desirable to all persons who set any value on this 

 beautiful ornament of our gardens and shrubberies. Showering or 

 syringing the bushes with a liquor, made by mixing with water the 

 juice expressed from tobacco by tobacconists, has been recommended ; 

 but some caution is necessary in making this mixture of a proper 

 strength, for if too strong, it is injurious to plants ; and the experiment 

 does not seem, as yet, to have been conducted with sufficient care to 

 insure safety and success. 



Dusting lime over the plants, when wet with dew, has been tried 

 and found of some use ; but this and aU other remedies will probably 

 yield in efficacy to Mr. Haggerston's mixture of whale-oil soap and 

 water, in the proportion of two pounds of the soap to fifteen gallons 



