Many exasperated rose-lovers, seeing 
the best blooms of their pet roses de¬ 
stroyed by this boiler-plate bug, have 
wished death to him and all his family. 
Wishes have not hurt him, however, 
and it has heretofore been necessary 
to patiently and persistently pick or 
shake him—if you could catch him!—into 
kerosene in order to make his death 
certain. 
Rose-growers know the mean bug— 
a disgusting, long-legged, grayish-brown 
quick-flying beetle about three-eighths of 
an inch in length, who suddenly appears 
in myriads when roses come into bloom, 
attacking, to satisfy his voracious appe¬ 
tite, first the white and lighter-colored 
roses, from which he passes to the yellow, 
pink and red blooms, and then, without 
hesitation, to peonies, Japanese iris, rho¬ 
dodendrons and other June blooms. He 
infests also, on occasion, grape-vines, 
cherry and other fruit trees, always leav¬ 
ing destruction in his wake. 
This pest is scientifically the Rose Cur- 
culio (Rhynchites bicolor Fabr.), and if al¬ 
lowed to live long enough to deposit little 
eggs in the holes eaten in the lovely rose¬ 
buds, these eggs will hatch into grubs, 
which eventually find their way into the 
ground, where they hibernate over win- 
