60 
THE GRAPE ROOT-WORM. 
in 1870 by C. V. Riley, who relates an instance where a vineyardist ; 
having observed that the beetles have the habit of falling from the 
foliage to the ground when the vines are jarred and that they have a 
tendency to "play possum/' and also that they were readily devoured 
by his chickens, was able to destroy many of them in his vineyard 
by having a boy drive his flock of chickens through the vineyard 
while he shook the beetle-infested vines in front of them. 
In 1872 Kridelbaugh suggested handpicking of the beetles from 
the vines and also the use of an arsenical spray. 
Not until 1895, however, when Professor Webster made his inves- 
tigation of the pest in Ohio, were methods for its control seriously 
considered. During his investigation Professor Webster conducted 
experiments with salt, kainit, tobacco, kerosene emulsion, and carbon 
bisulphid against the larvae in the soil, all of which appear to have 
given -indifferent results. The carbon bisulphid, although partially 
effective, was likely to injure the roots of the vines and was also 
too expensive to be practicable. He also used kerosene emulsion 
against the adults, both on the foliage and after they had fallen to 
the ground. Pyrethrum in solution was used in the same manner, 
but with very indifferent results. Arsenical sprays were applied to 
the foliage in an attempt to poison the beetles, using London purple 
and Paris green, 4 ounces to 50 gallons of water, and arsenate of lead, 
1 pound to 150 gallons of water. Although there was evidence that 
some beetles were destroyed by the use of these arsenicals, the results 
were far from conclusive. Later experiments in Ohio with arsenicals 
against the pest gave more encouraging results, yet the practice of 
spraying as a method of control never became general. Therefore 
in 1900, when the insect appeared in destructive numbers in the 
vineyards of Chautauqua County, N. Y., it was again the subject of 
experimentation by both the late Prof. M. V. Slingerland, of Cornell 
University Agricultural Experiment Station, and by Prof. E. P. Felt, 
of the New York State Museum to determine effective methods of 
control. 
During the early part of the investigation it was shown that early 
in June the larvae come near the surface of the soil to make the pupal 
cells in which they transform to beetles, and that thorough stirring 
of the first 3 or 4 inches of the soil, especially beneath the trellis, will 
expose and destroy a large number of the pupae. On account of the 
somewhat unsatisfactory and inconclusive results obtained with 
arsenical sprays in former years in Ohio, Doctor Felt gave consider- 
able attention to the perfecting of a device for collecting the beetles 
by jarring them into troughlike receptacles containing kerosene oil 
which could be operated either by hand or by horsepower where 
large areas of vineyard have to be treated. That large numbers of 
the beetles can be captured and destroyed by this method is demon- 
