110 PESTS OF GARDEN AND FIELD CROPS 
Leather Jackets ( Tipulide) 
Occasionally field crops, such as wheat, grasses, or clovers, are 
seriously injured by large numbers of naked grubs, the young stages of 
several species of crane flies (Tipulide). The adults are slender-bodied 
very long-legged insects, often known as “* gallinippers ” or “ giant 
mosquitoes.” The grubs are an inch or less in length, dark in color, 
cevlindrical, tough, the hind end blunt. They work just beneath the 
surface of the ground, eating the roots, traveling from plant to plant 
in the soil. 
The grubs are half grown in the fall, and winter in a dormant 
condition. In spring growth is resumed. The adults emerge in early 
summer, and prefer fields that have grown up to tall grasses or other 
herbage. There is a second generation in summer, the adults laying’ 
eggs again in grassland in September. 
Plowing before September 1 will place the field in such condition that 
the adults will not lay eggs in it, and thus protect winter wheat from 
injury. On grass or clover no effective means of avoiding or stopping 
attack is known, except plowing up. 
Ants (Formicina) 
Frequently colonies of ants of one kind or another take up their abode 
in gardens, and prove a nuisance. They can easily be Killed by the 
use of carbon bisulphide. With a pointed stick make several holes into 
the hills. and then pour into each half an ounce or so of carbon bisulphide, 
at once pressing the foot on the earth to close the hole. The fumes will 
penetrate the ground and kill off all of the colony. 
In some sections of the Gulf states and in parts of California a persist- 
ent and destructive ant has become established: the so-called Argen- 
tine Ant (Iridomyrmex humilis Mayr). It is a nuisance through enter- 
ing dwellings, and frequently is destructive in gardens. This species 
tends to hunt for warm quarters as winter approaches. Advantage is 
taken of this habit by providing a box of suitable decaying vegetable 
matter in the garden. preferably a mixture of cotton seed and straw. 
As this material decomposes it heats, and many colonies of ants, includ- 
