778 Annual Report for 1894 of the Zoologist. 
local destruction of the cockchafers. The following points should be 
noted : — 
1. The best time for collecting the beetles is early in the morning, 
on a dry day, not in very hot weather. 
2. They are best sought on isolated trees and shrubs, as they 
only go into the woods in bad weather. 
3. The trees should not be shaken too vigorously, or the beetles 
fly away instead of simply falling down. 
A convenient plan is for the workers to proceed in gangs of one 
man and five or six boys. The man can shake the smaller trees by 
kicking the trunks, and he carries a pole with which to strike the 
lower branches of the bigger trees. The boys are engaged in 
gathering up or destroying the beetles as they fall, and in climbing 
the trees when it is wished to shake the higher branches. 
The cockchafers may be shaken down upon tarred boards or 
cloths, or collected into any convenient vessels. A very satisfactory 
receptacle for the beetles is made thus : — A hole is made in the 
bottom of a sack, and the neck of a bottle tied into it. The 
mouth of the sack is tied up, and the beetles, as they are 
gathered, are inserted by way of the bottle-neck. This contrivance 
is easily carried over the shoulder, and is emptied, when desired, by 
simply untying the sack mouth. 
Cogho recommends the lighting of fires in the evening during 
the swarming-time, as numbers of the cockchafers are attracted by 
the light, and perish in the flames. 
Attempts have been made, with considerable success, to entice 
the beetle to lay its eggs in specially prepared trap-holes or trenches. 
These are made, at the beginning of May, in districts where attack 
is anticipated. They are about a foot deep, partly filled with damp 
moss, which is covered with the loose, dry soil which the cockchafers 
prefer for egg-laying purposes. In the summer they are cleared out 
and the larvae destroyed. 
It is difficult to find any satisfactory method of destroying the 
grub when the crop is of such a nature as to prevent any thorough 
disturbance of the ground. On the small scale a solution of ammonia 
is found to be very efficacious as a dressing, and on a larger scale the 
ammoniacal liquor from the gasworks is deserving of a trial. It 
should be used in the spring, when the grub comes up into the sur- 
face soil. In the winter the pest is too deeply buried for any 
insecticide to be employed with effect. 
With regard to gas-lime, Mr. It. W. Llewellyn, of Briton Ferry 
reports : “ In one field I gave a heavy top-dressing of gas lime in 
August 1893. The result was, it quite destroyed both the grub and 
the grass, but this year the grass has grown tremendously, almost 
too strong. In a field of a neighbour that was well limed the grub 
is not nearly as bad ; and I can say the same of a field to which I 
gave about 5 cwt. of basic slag per acre. No other steps were taken 
against the grub, except rolling, which did no good.” 
Special instruments have been devised for clearing the ground, 
under certain circumstances, from this troublesome grub. That of 
