96 
£ 
ORCHARD /md ■ GARDEN 
May, 1891. 
fields. The whole of what are styled the 
“Pine Barrens" has become one vast breed- 
ing ground for rosebugs. 
In October last I grubbed out about one 
thousand of my grape 
vines, valued at a dollar 
each, but valueless on 
account of the prospec- 
tive prevalence of this 
insect pest. I subsequent - 
ly ploughed the land 
which had been occupied 
by these vines and found 
that the rosebug larva; 
had already descended 
about six inches; they 
The Rose Chafer, were yet burying thern- 
Fig. 281. selves deeper and deeper 
out of the reach of frost. 
The female rosebug deposits her eggs gen- 
erally directly beneath where she feeds. 
Thus 1 find many more of the larva? right un- 
der the grape row than in the middle space 
between the rows. On cultivated soil, 
where the bugs find little to eat, as in corn 
fields. I find the larvae scarce. Tn the woods 
the rosebug feeds on foliage of many trees, 
and the ground beneath swarms with the 
larvae. 
If. before these insects are ready to ovi- 
posit. they may T have consumed all of their 
food in a given district, they will generally 
migrate to another place where they can 
obtain food, and this will be their breeding 
place. For example, on many sorts of 
grape vines they prefer the blossoms to the 
leaves. Of the Riparias they eat the leaves 
also. If there be a vineyard of Riparias 
accessible to the bugs, they will, towards 
the close of their dispensation, mostly 
abandon other vines and congregate on the 
Riparias. I have such a vineyard of iron 
clad grapes. The soil here is infested with 
the larvae much more than in other vine- 
yards. Still I find them more or less every- 
where that I search for them. 
It is manifestly impossible to suppress 
this infinite brood of insects over the whole 
scope of our territory. And as the rose- 
bugs have wings, they fly to where food 
attracts them. When they have devoured 
all of the provender in one place they will 
fly to another. 
To defend against them we must kill 
them as they come, which may be daily and 
nightly for a month; or we must apply to 
the plants which they attack some sub- 
stance which will ref>el them. For this I 
have tried, ineffectually, many things. 
I have also tried all of the poisons which 
my own ingenuity or that of others could 
suggest, and have only learned that what 
will kill the bug will also generally kill the 
plant. 
Last June, in rosebug time, our entomol- 
ogist, Professor Smith, came to me, bring- 
ing a whole arsenal of insecticides. We 
waged war on the rosebugs for a w’eek, and 
they remained masters of the field. 
Soon after this I had a letter from the sec- 
retary of the Columbia Chemical Works, 
Brooklyn, New York, suggesting that I 
should test a product of these works, which 
he had used to destroy insects. This chem- 
ical is named “Zomonia,” and is described 
as “Kerosene Sludge,” A package of it 
was sent to me. “Zomonia” looks like glue 
and smells offensively. It dissolves in hot 
water, making a sort of emulsion, wfliich is 
liquid so long as it remains in any degree 
warm. 
When I leceived the Zomonia the rose- 
bugs were mostly gone from the grape 
vines, but were plenty on the roses. 
I made a solution of the chemical, one 
pound to six gallons of water, and with it 
sprayed the infested rosebushes. In the 
course of ten minutes the bugs were all 
fallen to the ground. I scraped up a pint of 
them. 
The next day these bugs all appeared to 
be dead. I sent some of them to New 
Brunswick to be examined by Professor 
Smith. He pronounced them dead. 
I had but little more time to test this new 
insecticide on rosebugs, as their time was 
about past. However, I killed some thou- 
sands more of them on the roses, and then 
continued spraying various plants to learn 
if this solution would harm the growth. No 
damage resulted from its use, and I shall 
next year employ it in medication of rose- 
bugs with good hope of satisfactory results. 
I advise a cautious use of it at first. Make 
a solution and test it on a few plants before 
using it generally. 
“Zomonia” solution kills the rosebug; 
the potato bug, and various other insects 
by contact. At least such is my experience 
this summer. 
It will be remembered that I used it on 
the rosebug when this insect had nearly 
reached the natural limit of its existence. 
Whether it will kill the rosebug in the full 
vigor of his earlier life has got to be 
learned by trial. He is a tough customer. 
I do not know what strength of the solu- 
tion of Zomonia is needful. Perhaps a 
weaker solution than that I used will be 
strong enough. When prepared for spray- 
ing it should be slightly warm. When 
cold it curdles, like soft soap. 
This is the chief information I have at 
present to impart concerning the treatment 
of the rosebug. But in this connection it 
may be of interest to mention yet other ob- 
servations. 
Mr. H. L Lyman, of Charlottesville, Va., 
a special agent of U. S. Department of Ag- 
riculture, wrote to me last July describing 
results of the use of sundry solutions of 
copper which we are testing in treatment 
of the fungus maladies of the vine. 
He mentioned that “ ammoniacal solution 
of copper carbonate is the only one of the cop- 
per solutions which check the rosebug." 
Mr. Lyman’s observation caused me to 
notice that the sections of my vineyard 
which were unharmed by the rosebug were 
those sections sprayed with this ammonia- 
cal solution of copper. If this experience 
be repeated next year, we may gain from it 
instruction how to successfully contend 
the rosebug.— Alex. W. Pearson, N. J. 
Arsenites for the Plum Curculio. 
Dr. C. M. Weed of the Ohio Experiment 
Station in the January number of the 
American Naturalist reviews the litera- 
ture relating to the use of the arsenites as a 
means of destroying the plum curculio. Dr. 
Weed has conducted his experiments with 
great care and they have been continued 
for a number of years. Until the past year 
his experiments have almost entirely been 
conducted upon cherry trees, and from the 
experiments thus carried on one can not 
help but draw conclusions favorable to the 
use of the arsenites. Last season Dr. Weed 
conducted his experiments upon a plum 
orchard containing 900 bearing trees. One 
half of the orchard was sprayed with pure 
Paris green in the proportion of one pound 
to 200 gallons of water. Four applications 
of the mixture were made extending over a 
period of twenty-six days. The remaining 
half of the orchard was treated by the jarr- 
ing method, which consists in giving the 
tree a sudden jar, with a padded mallet or 
axe, thus causing the curculios to fall upon 
a sheet or inverted umbrella-like arrange- 
ment which had previously been placed 
underneath the tree. Then by crushing or 
burning destroy the insects. Dr. Weed says. 
“On the jarred portion of the orchard a 
great many curculios were caught showing 
that they were present in numbers. A care- 
ful examination of both parts of the orchard 
was made June 3. “ Between one and two 
per cent, of the plums on the sprayed trees 
had been stung, while about three per cent, 
of the plums on the jarred trees were in- 
jured.” A second examination of the 
orchard in July, “showed that not over 
three per cent, of the sprayed fruit was 
stung at that time, while about four per 
cent, of that on the jarred trees were 
injured.” The fact that Dr. Weed has had 
such excellent success in fighting the cur- ** 
culio by use of the arsenites seems to war- 
rant a continuation of his experiments and 
should he be as successful in the future as 
he has in the past, he surely merits the 
hearty praise of all plum growers. 
Experiments carried on at other stations 
having in view the same object have not 
been so successful. It is true they have not 
been conducted on such a large scale but a 
smaller number of trees, treated as 
thoroughly as trees could be, and the appli- 
cations made as often as were those of Dr. 
Weed and with all precautions taken to in- 
sure a fair trial of the two methods should 
in a measure yield nearly as good results. 
It is to ■ be hoped that the arsenites will 
prove a valuable aid in checking this pest 
and place it entirely under the control of 
the fruit grower. In order to prove to a 
certainty the efficacy of the arsenites against 
the curculio the applications should be made 
thorough; the mixture should be of suffi- ** 
cient strength to insure the destruction of 
the curculio without injuring the foliage or 
fruit and the poison should be applied at in- 
tervals of a week or ten days and after a 
heavy rain if an application has been made 
previously. 
S'* 
