Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1073 
Questions About Insects 
Answered by Prof. Glenn W. Herrick 
Beetles Injure Strawberries 
This year I had a fine strawberry bed 
and expected a nice crop of berries. The 
plants were big and healthy and the bed 
free from weeds and they hung full of 
green berries. When berries were about 
grown I began to notice a few that 
looked as though something had been eat¬ 
ing them. From that time on the berries 
were destroyed by the quart every day. 
On looking I found the bed to be alive 
with big black bugs. As near as I can 
find out they bury themselves in the 
ground through the day and work at 
night. When it is wet and cloudy I 
sometimes found a few on the plants 
during the day. The green berries looked 
as though they had eaten the seeds out 
and on the ground I would find the seeds. 
The ripe berries they eat a little more 
of but always go all around the outside 
eating out the seeds and spoiling the 
whole berry. They have entirely ruined 
this year’s crop of berries, but I have a 
nice bed set out for next year and I 
would like to be prepared to save them, 
if there is any way of doing it. The ber¬ 
ries are so far advanced that I did not 
dare use any poison on them. G. P. 
Perry, N. Y. 
The type of injury and the insects con¬ 
cerned in it are rather unusual and to 
the entomologist very interesting. The 
beetles doing the damage are certain com¬ 
mon ground beetles technically known 
as Harpalus pennsylvanicus. They 
usually feed on other insects and on 
various animal matter and are looked 
upon generally as useful and well be¬ 
haved insects. Occasionally these beetles 
evidently stray from the path of right 
living, forget the food habits of their an¬ 
cestors and revert to the devouring of 
vegetable materials. Only twice before 
in the history of insect troubles in this 
country have these beetles been caught 
destroying strawberries—once in Penn¬ 
sylvania and Ohio. The beetles usually 
live under stones and sticks and are apt 
to be especially abundant beneath mulch 
if it is used in a strawberry field. 
Unfortunately no very definite experi¬ 
ments have ever been carried out to con¬ 
trol these beetles but we would suggest 
clean cultivation of the plants and the 
removal of all straw or coarse manure 
which may be used as a mulch in order 
to destroy the hiding places of the beetles 
and to drive them from the field. 
In England, growers have caught and 
destroyed large numbers of similar beetles 
by sinking tin cans in the ground to the 
level of the surface and then baiting the 
cans with pieces of meat. In dry weather 
many of the beetles may be caught in 
this way during the night and then de¬ 
stroyed in the morning. A small field of 
plants or a bed of strawberries might be 
effectively baited and the beetles caught 
before the berries become too large. 
European Elm Scale 
I inclose a sample of bark taken from a 
young elm tree I planted two years ago. 
On it you will see a lot of young scale. I 
noticed adult scale last Summer, and 
painted lime-sulphur on the bark while 
the tree was in foliage. Now I notice this 
young scale. Can you tell me what it is 
and if lime-sulphur spray is the thing to 
use to kill it? L. a. s. 
Concord Mass. 
This scale insect, introduced from Eu¬ 
rope, was first discovered in this country 
at Rye. N. Y., in 1884. It has gone all 
over the Northern United States, having 
been carried, probably, on young elm 
trees from nurseries, until now it is found 
as far west as Nevada and Washington. 
The insect hae apparently been on the 
increase in New York State during the 
past four or five years, until it has be¬ 
come a serious pest in many localities. 
In Summer the presence of the insect 
is first indicated by a yellowing of the 
leaves, and later the leaves become brown, 
while the infested branches turn brown 
and often die. In Winter the bark is 
often coated with the bodies of the dead 
insects, each one of which is oval in 
shape, with a white fringe around the 
edge. In the Spring the eggs are laid, 
and the young, which soon appear, spread 
over the tender parts of the new branches 
and over the leaves, wher,e they suck out 
the juices and cause the injury described. 
The insects become partly grown by Fall, 
and pass the Winter on the branches of 
the elms around the buds, and in the 
cracks and crevices of the bark. 
Lime-sulphur is the safest and most 
effective material for the control of the 
insect that we have yet found. The scale 
is very hard to kill, and linue-sulphur is 
not 100 per cent effective. It did kill, 
however, in our experiments, about SO per 
cent of the young over-wintering females. 
The spraying should he done early in the 
Spring, about the time the buds begin to 
show signs of bursting. The lime-sulphur 
should be used at the rate of eight gallons 
to 02 gallons of water if the liquid form 
is used. If dry lime-sulphur is used, at 
least 15 lbs. to each 50 gallons of water 
is none too strong. The spraying should 
be done very thoroughly. 
If water under pressure is available it 
would be very helpful to wash the 
branches and trunks of the infested trees 
before spraying in order to knock off just 
as many of the old dead females and of 
the young over-wintering ones as possible. 
The young ones hide behind the bodies of 
the dead mothers, and in these situations 
are protected from the lime-sulphur. 
Moreover, washing the trees with a stiff 
strong stream of water from the garden 
hose, if the pressure is strong enough, 
will knock the insects off and check them 
so effectively that they will do little dam¬ 
age. This should be done every year, 
early in the Spring, before the young 
have matured and laid their eggs. 
Insects in Telephone Poles 
Will you advise as to rid our place of 
some small gray bugs. It looks as 
though they are the kind which one some¬ 
times finds in old books, very small. 
Men here put up new telephone poles, 
and gave us an old one for firewood. The 
wood see. s to be full of the insects since 
it is split, and the little bugs seem to ap¬ 
pear everywhere now. Is there any 
danger of their settling in the house, 
which we built last year? We have tried 
insect powder, but they walk right over 
it. What can you suggest to get rid of 
them? P. K. 
West Ashville, N. C. 
Although it is impossible to be sure 
what these insects are of which P. K. 
speaks, his brief description and the 
place in which they occur suggest at once 
white ants or termites. Termites are 
not true ants, and not even closely related 
to them, but they live in colonies and 
have somewhat the general appearance of 
ants although lighter in color. It has 
therefore been easy for them to acquire 
the common name, white ants. The ter¬ 
mites in this country live mostly in dry 
and decaying woods. They mine in tele¬ 
phone and telegraph poles, in railroad 
ties, in fence posts, in beams of bridges 
and buildings, especially where the lat¬ 
ter touch the ground, and sometimes they 
work in books stored in damp basements. 
It is in tropical countries, though, that 
termites are most abundant and injur¬ 
ious. In Africa, for example, they mine 
in household furniture, in the floors and 
beams of the houses, and in wooden struc¬ 
tures of all kinds. A traveler in that 
country writing of the habits and ravages 
of these insects says: “In many parts 
of Africa I believe if a man lay down to 
sleep with a wooden leg it would be a 
heap of sawdust in the morning.” 
I do not believe that there is much 
danger of these insects getting settled 
in the beams or floors of the new house 
of P. K. .At the same time it might be 
wise to remove the wood of the old tele¬ 
phone poles and pile it up out-of-doors 
some distance away from the house. In 
addition it would probably be well to 
sweep up and destroy all of the insects 
that can be collected. Finally a white 
powder known as sodium fluoride will 
probably destroy many of them. Sodium 
fluoride can be purchased at the drug 
store and should be blown into all of the 
cracks and crevices frequented by the in¬ 
sects. The powder is poisonous to hu¬ 
man beings, but not highly so. It should 
however, be kept out of all food, and 
should be stored in plainly labeled re¬ 
ceptacles. If it should turn out on in¬ 
vestigation that the insects in the pole 
were not termites but were simply those 
tiny one known as book lice, which some¬ 
times appear in houses in great num¬ 
bers, the precautions and recommenda¬ 
tions I have suggested would be equally 
valuable. 
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