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Iht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
August  4,  1923 
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Questions  About  Insects 
Answered  by  Prof.  Glenn  W.  Herrick 
The  Ichneumon  Fly — A  Friend  Unknown 
I  am  sending  you  an  insect  which  I 
found  on  an  old  maple  tree  in  our  yard. 
There  are  sometimes  as  many  as  10  at 
one  time  on  the  tree,  and  if  we  bother 
them  in  any  way  they  will  chase  us  into 
the  house.  They  seem  to  bore  holes,  in 
the  tree,  and  I  imagine  they,  are  laying 
eggs.  As  I  have  two  little  girls  playing 
in  the  yard  I  am  afraid  they  would  get 
bitten  by  the  insect.  What  are  they,  and 
should  i  burn  the  tree  to  get  rid  of  the 
eggs?  Everyone  around  here  has  never 
seen  anything  like  them  before.  c.  b. 
What  a  comfort  it  is  to  have  well- 
known  friends  about  us,  and  what  an  ad¬ 
ditional  comfort  it  would  be  if  we  felt 
assured  that  we  were  surrounded  by 
friendly  creatures,  sort  of  protecting  an¬ 
gels,  that  were  constantly  fighting  our 
The  Ichneumon  Fly  Boring  a  Hole  in 
Which  io  Lay  Its  Egg 
battles  for  us,  all  unseen  and  unasked ! 
In  very  truth  such  is  often  the  fact,  for 
if  it  were  not  for  the  multitudes  of  par¬ 
asitic  insects,  both  great  and  small,  that 
work  unseen  and  unbidden  for  us  by  kill¬ 
ing  noxious  pests  that  prey  on  our  crops, 
we  would  literally  be  eaten  out  of  house 
and  home.  The  stories  of  these  insect 
parasites  and  the  curious  and  remarkable 
ways  in  which  they  live  and  destroy  other 
insects  are  indeed  wonderful,  and  the 
large  ichneumon  fly  which  C.  B.  sends  is 
typical  of  many  of  them. 
There  is  a  rather  large  insect  known 
as  the  “pigeon  horn-tail”  that  lays  its 
eggs  in  holes  which  it  bores  in  the  wood 
of  elm,  maple  and  beech  trees.  Each  egg 
hatches  into  a  white  cylindrical  grub  that 
grows  to  a  length  of  1*4  in.  and  becomes 
as  thick  as  a  small  lead  pencil.  These 
pigeon  horn-tail  grubs  do  great  damage 
to  the  trees  in  which  they  work,  and  C. 
B.  would  certainly  have  found  them  bur¬ 
rowing  in  her  maple  tree ;  but  they  were 
not  having  things  all  their  own  wTay. 
The  ichneumon  flies,  of  which  C.  B. 
sends  a  sample,  by  some  strange  instinct 
not  understood  by  us,  were  locating  the 
burrows  of  the  pigeon  horn-tail  grubs, 
and  were  also  boring  holes  into  the  maple 
with  their  long  thread-like  ovipositors. 
Moreover,  the  holes  which  the  ichneu¬ 
mons  were  boring  were  reaching  the  bur¬ 
rows.  of  the  pigeon  horn-tail  grubs  with 
unerring  accuracy,  and  through  these 
holes  the  ichneumons  were  depositing 
their  eggs,  which  later  hatch  into  grub¬ 
like  larvae  that  seek  out  the  pigeon  horn- 
tail  grubs  and  “eat  them  up.”  It  is  lit¬ 
erally  “bug  against  bug,”  in  which  fight 
the  ichneumons  are  mostly  the  winners, 
and  C.  B.  is  the  beneficiary. 
The  ichneumon  flies  are  not  dangerous 
and  do  not  bite  or  sting,  but  should  be 
protected  and  fostered. 
The  Rose  Chafer 
A  bug  that  flies  through  the  air,  with  a 
light  green  hard  shell,  is  destroying 
everything  on  our  farm  ;  all  the  garden, 
strawberries  and  vines,  also  the  apple, 
maple  and  cherry  trees..  They  are  like  a 
swarm  of  bees  in  the  air.  What  method 
of  control  can  we  use?  If  too  late  to  do 
anything  this  year,  what  can  we  do  to 
check  them  next  year?  H.  B.  0. 
The  insect  overrunning  the  place  of  II. 
B.  O.  is  the  common  rose  chafer  (Macro- 
dactylus  subspinosus) .  Like  nearly  all 
beetles,  the  two  front  wings  are  hardened 
and  lie  over  the  back  like  a  shell.  M  e 
are  hearing  complaints  of  the  rose  chafer 
this  Summer  from  several  localities.  Ap¬ 
parently  the  season  is  favorable  for  its 
development  in  large  numbers,  and  it  is 
evidently  causing  much  damage.  It  at¬ 
tacks  many  different  plants,  but  is  par¬ 
tial  to  the  rose,  grape,  apple,  cherry  and 
plum.  It  has  the  habit  of  appearing  in 
enormous  numbers  in  a  local  area,  where 
it  swarms  over  the  plants,  devours  the 
foliage  and  then  perhaps  attacks  the 
fruit.  Usually  after  a  week  or  10  days 
the  beetles  gradually  disappear,  passing 
to  grassy  fields  of  sandy  soils,  in  which 
the  females  deposit  their  eggs.  The  eggs 
hatch  and  the  grubs  live  in  the  ground  on 
the  roots  of  grasses. 
The  beetles  are  resistant  to  the  effects 
of  poison,  and  apparently  do  not  eat 
enough  of  it  at  any  one  time  to  produce 
quick  death.  If  the  plants  on  which  the 
rose  chafers  are  feeding  are  thoroughly 
sprayed  with  powTdered  arsenate  of  lead 
at  the  rate  of  4  lbs.  to  100  gallons  of 
water,  to  which  two  gallons  of  molasses 
have  been  added  to  sweeten  the  mixture, 
many  of  them  may  be  killed,  but  probab¬ 
ly  not  before  they  have  done  much  of 
their  damage.  No  satisfactory  method 
has  ever  been  discovered  for  controlling 
these  beetles  and  destroying  them  in  time 
to  prevent  their  ravages. 
Probably,  in  the  long  run,  the  most  ef¬ 
fective  way  to  prevent  the  rose  chafer 
from  developing  is  to  plow  and  cultivate 
the  meadows  or  pasture  lands  in  which 
the  grubs  are  living. 
The  Black  Cherry  Aphid 
I  am  sending  you  a  specimen  leaf  of  a 
sweet  cherry.  What  is  the  name  of  in¬ 
sect  that  is  on  it,  and  how  treat  to  con¬ 
trol  same?  G.  w.  j. 
Plant  lice  or  aphids  are  legion  in  num¬ 
ber  and  in  kinds,  and  nearly  every  plant 
that  grows  is  subject  to  the  attacks  of 
one  or  more  kinds  of  these  tiny  insects. 
The  sweet  cherry  is  especially  subject  to 
infestation  by  the  black  cherry  aphid 
(Myzus  cerasi),  and  this  is  the  insect 
which  you  send  in  your  letter.  The 
aphids  lay  their  black  shining  eggs 
around  the  buds  on  the  branches  of  the 
trees  in  the  Fall.  In  the  Spring  the 
eggs  hatch,  and  the  aphids  get  on  the  new 
growth,  curl  the  leaves  and  stop  the 
branches  from  growing.  In  severe  cases 
where  the  aphids  increase  very  greatly  in 
number  the  fruit  may  be  injured  so  that 
it  drops  off. 
The  black  cherry  aphid,  like  certain 
Leaves  on  New  Shoots  Curled  hy  Black 
Cherry  Aphis 
other  aphids,  is  remarkable  for  having  an¬ 
other  Summer  host  plant  upon  which  it 
spends  a  part  of  its  time.  Along  in  late 
June  or  early  July  some  of  the  aphids 
that  appear  on  the  cherry  have  wings, 
and  these  may  fly  away  to  find  the  other 
host  plant,  which  is  the  wild  pepper- 
grass  (Lepidium  apetalum).  If  the 
aphids  find  the  pepper  grass  they  will 
alight  and  soon  bring  forth  a  family  and 
settle  down  on  this  plant  for  the  Sum¬ 
mer.  Probably  you  would  be  willing  for 
all  of  them  to  leave  your  cherry  trees  and 
settle  on  the  pepper  grass,  but  unfor¬ 
tunately  this  scarcely  ever  happens. 
However,  timely  and  thorough  spraying 
with  nicotine  sulphate  (tobacco  extract) 
just  'as  the  buds  are  coming  out, 
and  before  the  leaves  have  begun  to  curl, 
will  control  the  pest.  The  tobacco  ex¬ 
tract  should  be  used  at  the  rate  of  one 
pint  to  100  gallons  of  water  with  about  5 
lbs.  of  soap  dissolved  and  added  to  make 
the  mixture  stick  and  spread.  In  smaller 
amounts,  a  teaspoonful  of  the  nicotine 
sulphate  and  about  an  ounce  of  soap  to  a 
gallon  of  water  will  form  the  correct 
proportions  for  the  mixture. 
It  is,  I  regret  to  say,  too  late  to  do 
much  in  the  way  of  fighting  the  pest  this 
year.  Next  Spring  you  should  be  pre¬ 
pared  with  the  tobacco  extract  ready  to 
spray  at  the  psychological  time.  Fore¬ 
warned  is  forearmed. 
