Insects, Diseases and Frost 279 



Cutworms (several species). 



These are the larvae of night-flying moths. Cutworms do more 

 damage to strawberries in Florida and the Gulf states than else- 

 where. They are of various colors, usually dark green or blackish, 

 and one-half inch to one inch long. Dining the day they stay in 

 the soil and come out at night to feed, cutting off the plants near the 

 ground. The injury is most serious in early spring and fall. Poi- 

 soned baits are used with some success. Mix paris green or arsenate 

 of lead, with bran and add a httle sirup to make it stick together. 

 Bran bait is effective, also, when used dry at the rate of fifty parts of 

 bran to one of paris green. The bait is scattered among the plants. 



MISCELLANEOUS PESTS 



Rose bug. — If rose bugs attack strawberries after the fruit is set, 

 spraying with arsenate of lead is unsafe. Nothing can be done ex- 

 cept to hand pick .them, gather them with a scoop net or cover the 

 vines with netting or cheesecloth. 



Ants. — If ants are in the home garden, find the hill, poke 

 a hole in it with a crowbar and pour in half a pint of bisulfide 

 of carbon; then cover it with a blanket. The fumes will destroy 

 the ants. 



Snails. — In Louisiana and other parts of the South snails are 

 injurious occasionally. They are harbored by the mulch, and are 

 serious only in wet weather. Sprinkle air slaked lime — not quick- 

 lime — around the plants. Soot is used in England. 



Crickets. — In the Gulf states, black and white crickets eat small 

 holes in the fruit, causing it to rot. They hide beneath the leaves 

 and mulch during the day and feed at night. Poisoned bran 

 sweetened with sirup and distributed among the rows gives some 

 relief. 



Birds. — Several kinds of birds, particularly the robin, take toll 

 from the strawberry field. In large fields the loss is so small, com- 

 pared with the good that the birds do by eating insects, that the grower 

 should not mind it; certainly he is not justified in shooting them. 

 In home gardens, it may be desirable to cover the plants with cheese- 

 cloth or mosquito netting, pegging it close to the ground. Some use 

 poultry netting stretched on posts six feet high, so as to provide 

 permanent protection. 



