38 
COLEOPTERA. 
enjoyment of tlieir propensities, we must unite our efforts to 
seize and crush the invaders. They must indeed be crushed, 
scalded, or burned, to deprive them of life, for they are not 
affected by any of the applications usually found destructive 
to other insects. Experience has proved the utility of gather- 
ing them by hand, or of shaking them or brushing them from 
the plants into tin vessels containing a little water. They 
should be collected daily during the period of their visitation, 
and should be committed to the flames or killed by scalding 
water. The late John Lowell, Esq., states,* that in 1823 he 
discovered, on a solitary apple-tree, the rose-bugs “ in vast 
numbers, such as could not be described, and would not be 
believed if they were described, or, at least, none but an 
ocular witness could conceive of their numbers. Destruction 
by hand was out of the question,” in this case. He put 
sheets under the tree, and shook them down, and burned 
them. 
Dr. Green, of Mansfield, whose investigations have thrown 
much light on the history of this insect, proposes protecting 
plants with millinet, and says that in this way only did he 
succeed in securing his grape-vines from depredation. His 
remarks also show the utility of gathering them. “ Eighty- 
six of these spoilers,” says he, “ were known to infest a 
single rose-bud, and were crushed with one grasp of the 
hand.” Suppose, as was probably the case, that one half 
of them were females ; by this destruction, eight hundred 
eggs, at least, were prevented from becoming matured. 
During the time of their prevalence, rose-bugs are some- 
times found in immense numbers on the flowers of the com- 
mon white-weed, or ox-eye daisy ( Chrysanthemum leucanthe- 
mum), a worthless plant, which has come to us from Europe, 
and has been suffered to overrun our pastures and encroach 
on our mowing-lands. In certain cases it may become expe- 
dient rapidly to mow down the infested white-weed in dry 
* Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, Vol. IX. p. 145. 
