150 Vulgar Errors respecting Insects being destroyed 



of a Cherry tree nailed against the wall.* And in proof of 

 their numbers, from one to two hundred were, in many cases, 

 shaken*!' from a single tree. The case is precisely the same 

 with regard to slugs, which in my own garden, and those of 

 my acquaintances, are quite as numerous as they were be- 

 fore the winter : and the Grub, which last year so abounded 

 in Holderness (though scarcely one was to be found in 1812), 

 that in the district of Sunk Island, the herbage of many 

 whole fields was laid waste by them, is, I am told, continu- 

 ing its ravages this spring, apparently without abatement. 



Both experiment and fact, I think, therefore prove, that 

 the supposed destruction of insects by severe winters does 

 not take place ; and, consequently, that the gardener must 

 rely on his own exertions, for ridding himself of these 

 assailants. 



I shall perhaps be asked, to what cause then is owing the 

 remarkable diminution that sometimes takes place in the 



* Linnaeus cites as the food of this larva, besides the different species of Ribes, 

 the Almond, Willow, and Black-thorn From my own observations it would 

 seem almost, omnivorous. In the autumn of last year, the young brood, in my 

 garden attacked the leaves of Turnips, Apple trees, Black Italian Poplars, and 

 even of Laurels. 



f This seems to me the best mode of destroying these insects, which, when 

 disturbed at any time, except when eating (which is chiefly at night and in 

 dull weather), let themselves down to the ground by a silken thread. If there- 

 fore, a large sheet of strong paper or parchment be laid upon the ground, on 

 each side of the stem, under a Currant or Gooseberry bush, and a sudden and 

 violent shake be given to it, nine tenths of all the caterpillars upon it will fall 

 down, and may be collected with the greatest ease ; and by going over the trees 

 twice or thrice in this way, the whole may be extirpated far more effectually, and 

 at less expense both of money and time, than by watering the trees with solu- 

 tions of tobacco, lime, &c. 



