62 General Notes. 
plants in a corn-field by furnishing the worms with other food. 
Baits of sliced potatoes, clover, corn-meal dough, and corn-meal 
dough sweetened with sugar, were placed in various positions in a 
badly infested field. This was soon after the field had been planted 
aud before the corn came up. In most cases the baits were placed 
on the surface of the ground and covered with small boards. 
Boards were used instead of earth for covering the baits to facih- 
tate the examination of them. It now seems probable that more 
worms would have been attracted had the baits been buried. 
The results of our efforts to trap wire-worms were very different 
from what we had expected. - A few were taken in traps baited 
with sweetened dough, not enough, however, to be of much practi- 
cal importance. But to our surprise, large numbers of click-beetles 
were taken. This at once opened a new line of investigation. If 
it is possible to trap and destroy the beetles before they have laid 
their eggs, we have at our command a much more effectual method 
of preventing the ravages of wire-worms than by destroying the 
larvae after they are partially grown. 
As indicating the possible efficiency of this method, I will cite a 
single instance. A series of twelve traps, which had been left un- 
disturbed for only three days, yielded 482 beetles, or an average of 
more than 40 beetles per 'trap. And this notwithstanding that a 
considerable number had been attracted to other traps in the imme- 
diate vicinity.^ 
Of the substances used as baits clover attracted by far the larger 
number of beetles. The clover baits were small bunches about one- 
quarter pound in weight, of freshly cut stalks and leaves. Next to 
clover in the order of efficiency was sweetened dough. This was 
made by mixing one part sugar with ten parts corn-meal and suf- 
ficient water to make a dough. About une-half a teacupful Avas 
used in each trap. Unsweetened dough and sliced potatoes proved 
to be of nearly equal value, but much less attractive than sweetened 
dough. 
We thus demonstrated that it is an easy matter to trap click -bee- 
tles in the places where they abound — that they will collect in 
large numbers upon baits of clover or of sweetened corn-meal dough. 
The collection of the beetles, however, from such baits involves con- 
siderable labor. We therefore conducted experiments to ascertain 
if this labor could be saved, and obtained the following results: 
Many beetles were collected from our traps and placed in breed- 
ing cages. Some of these cages were supplied with clover, others 
with sliced potatoes, others with dough, and still others with sweet- 
ened dough. In one series of cages these substances were poisoned. 
In another, used as a check, the food was not poisoned. At the 
same time an extensive series of traps were placed in the corn-field. 
In this case alternate traps were poisoned, the others not. 
» More than one-half of the click-beetles collected in these experiments 
were Agriotes mancus. Next in abundance was Drasterius dorsalis. A 
few specimens of Agriotes pubescens were also taken. 
