390 



Ground Beetles. 



[august, 



The fruit is attacked in all stages— green, coming to 

 maturity, and mature. The succulent receptacle on which 

 the "seeds" (achenes) are placed is gnawed; or the "seeds" 

 may be picked out while the succulent part is spared. As 

 one correspondent puts it : "I found strawberries with the 

 seeds picked out, and in some cases the broken shell of the 

 seed adhering to the flesh as if a nut had been cracked and 

 the shell left behind." Bitten fruits discolour and wither 

 away. 



Damage to Mangolds. — A correspondent described the 

 beetle (in this case Steropus madidus) as " playing sad havoc 

 amongst his mangolds, gnawing the plant off at the top of 

 the root." 



Treatment. — i. In a garden, on a small scale, the beetles 

 can be collected from their shelter places in the litter and 

 soil of the beds, the soil being turned over to expose them. 



2. Warburton records that raw meat covered with sacking 

 is a good trap for the beetles. Such traps should be regu- 

 larly visited. 



3. In her Report for 1899, Miss Ormerod quotes the method 

 of trapping practised by Messrs. Laxton Brothers, of Bed- 

 ford : "We purchased a large quantity of cheap pudding- 

 basins early this spring ; these are let into the ground, level 

 with the surface, at distances of a few yards apart, and kept 

 baited with pieces of lights and sugar-water. When the 

 weather was dry, we often caught half a basinful of a night 

 until the number gradually diminished to two or three and 

 now none at all. It is a laborious process, but we have lost 

 no fruit this season." 



4. In one case of infestation reported to the Board a market 

 gardener saved half his crop "by tying up the bunches of 

 fruit to strings stretched about the rows, the beetles being 

 found not to leave the ground." 



During the present season hay in some districts may prove 

 of inferior quality owing to unfavourable weather. In such 

 cases a little salt sprinkled over it when 

 Use of it is fed to animals will help to make j 



Inferior Hay. it more palatable. It is now too late j 

 to add the salt to the rick, otherwise 

 in cases where the hay is not thoroughly dry it is a good plan j 



