152 



THE BOOK OF THE ROSE 



CHAP. 



Rose beds, especially the black variety, to their nests, and 

 destroy them there. I have tried a preparation called 

 Formacicide, advertised as useful for their extermination, 

 without much success. 



Frog-hoppers, commonly known as " Cuckoo-spit," are 

 very troublesome in May in some places. The larva, 

 looking something like an aphis, is to be found in the 

 little patch of froth which is generally situated in the 

 axil of a leaf. He must be dislodged and crushed, for 

 it is plain that all that froth is made somehow from 

 stolen sap from the shoot. Be sure you have him, for 

 he will dodge about and hide in the hollow of the leaf- 

 stalk most cleverly, and will be quite satisfied if you 

 wipe away the froth and leave him behind. 



JEaru'igs only do serious harm in certain seasons. In 

 1888 their great numbers, even early in the year, were 

 a serious nuisance in many ways to dwellers in the 

 country, and but for the cold wet weather they would 

 probably have developed into an actual plague. Some- 

 body who came to see me was incredulous as to the 

 number to be found in the Roses, so I picked two large 

 old withering blooms, and counted the occupants. I 

 myself was astonished at the result : there were, oddly 

 enough, twenty-nine earwigs in each Rose ! 



Bean stalks, or hollow lengths of last year's cow- 

 parsley stems laid on the ground or among the plants 

 are good traps for earwigs ; they may be blown out the 

 next morning into boiling water, but chickens will soon 

 learn to pick them up very quickly and be the better 

 for them ; I always blow the contents of my stalks into 

 my garden pool, and my pet trout take care that none 

 escape. 



It is difficult to realise that earwigs can fly, but in 

 ejection from the stalks the wings, which are wonder- 



