BORING INSECTS 59 



ing the trunks with a kerosene emulsion containing 

 twenty-two per cent, of kerosene. 



Many other members of this division are of 

 sinister repute. Their very names brand them 

 villains — the " sugar maple borer," the " poplar 

 girdler," and the " linden borer." Still another 

 is the round-headed apple borer, destroyer of 

 apple and quince trees. The striped beetle ap- 

 pears in June or early July, and lays its eggs, soon 

 after, as near as it can to the ground. On this 

 account protecting the base of the tree for a couple 

 of feet, and whitewashing the upper part of the 

 trunk, form an effective protection against its at- 

 tacks. Finally, though hardly in place here, is 

 the broak-necked Prionus, a huge white grub bur- 

 rowing into the roots and crown of apple, oak 

 and aspen. 



The flat-headed borers are also beetles, of the 

 family Buprestidae. Three of them are especially 

 injurious. The bronze birch borer, an immigrant, 

 has almost exterminated the birch trees in several 

 cities, and also affects willow and poplar. In- 

 jury can be detected by a reddish discoloration a 

 quarter of an inch to an inch in diameter, caused 

 by exuding sap and ejected excrement, by the dy- 

 ing of the top of the tree, and by a wavy appear- 

 ance of the bark. The galleries, just beneath the 

 bark, are an eighth of a,n inch wide and hopelessly 

 tangled and irregular. The adult beetles come 



