490 PREVENTION AND DESTEUCTION OF INSECT PESTS. 



heaps as we often see them, for numberless ova of ohermes, aphis, 

 and winter moth may be upon them ; a cursory examination with 

 a lens will soon show their presence. Clean farming is the essential 

 of insect prevention, and this especially applies to fruit. Examine 

 in winter an old apple-tree covered with rough bark, moss, and 

 lichens, and we may find numberless larvae of the codlin moth, 

 American -blight insects, earwigs, weevils, &c., sheltering beneath. 

 Cleaning the bark in winter and whitewashing the trunks in spring 

 will do away with many destructive creatures. Some insect enemies 

 are found beneath the fruit-trees in the groimd in winter, but some 

 destructive species come into activity during the cold months of the 

 year — namely, the winter moths. These moths appear from October 

 to March, and lay their eggs upon the twigs. The females are 

 wingless in some (March moth), nearly so in others (Winter moth), 

 and many ascend the tree-trunks to deposit their eggs : the males, 

 however, carry many up to the tree in copuld. Those crawUng up 

 the trunk are easily captured by grease-handing. This method has 

 now been in vogue for some time ; but as quite half the damage done 

 to fruit-trees is hy small larvce belonging to the family Tortricidce, 

 which have both male and female winged, it must only be waste of 

 money, as washing has to be resorted to later, and then all the 

 larvce would be killed at once, no matter how many winter moths 

 crawled up. I therefore do not recommend grease-banding, it only 

 doing half, or not half, the work it is supposed to do. Banding of 

 another sort is useful in gardens and orchards — namely, for codlin 

 moth larva;. The best plan is to tie round the trunk about a foot 

 from the ground a wisp of hay in July, August, and September : 

 here the larvre find a, shelter in which to pui)ate, and can then be 

 taken off with the wisp in the winter and bm'nt. 



Another insect which may be trapped is the click beetle, the 

 parent of the wireworm. This is done by placing small masses 

 of green stuff, lucerne or sainfoin, under a board in gardens from 

 April to July, when numbers of cUck beetles will be found sheltering 

 beneath during the daytime, and may then be destro3-ed with the 

 ova they have laid in the lucerne. Leather-jackets may also be 

 caught by placing large lumps of rotting turf upon the ground 

 where they are abundant. 



Considerable damage is often done to small and other fruit, peas, 

 &c., in gardens by a group of beetles called Weevils {Ciirculionidce). 

 These beetles can always be told by their having a long snout and 

 elbowed antennoo {vide p. 136). They are destructive both in the 



