October, ’24] 
WYMORE: GARDEN CENTIPEDE 
525 
keep live specimens in a small tin box containing moist earth for as long 
as nine or ten months. 
Nature of Injury. The garden centipedes feed beneath the surface 
of the soil eating numerous small holes in the host. 
Flooding. Among other suggested methods for control of the garden 
centipede, E. O. Essig in Circular No. 204, University of California 
Agricultural Experiment Station, suggests flooding as a possible means 
of control of this pest. After many attempts with the use of insect 
repellents for the control of the centipedes had failed, Ed. Shelley, a 
farmer on Grand Island, in 1921 made an attempt at flooding. Al¬ 
though the small temporary levees used in this experiment did not hold 
the water on the field long enough to drown all the symphylids, Shelley 
found that the infestation was greatly reduced the following season. 
The experiment was repeated the next winter, 1922-1923, and this time 
he succeeded in thoroughly flooding small areas on his farm for three 
weeks. The writer kept a fairly thorough check on this field during the 
growing season of 1923 and could not find any trace of the symphylids 
on the well flooded plots and found that the numbers were greatly re¬ 
duced on areas where the land had been partially covered. 
After discussing the results of this experiment with officials of the 
California Packing Corporation Land Department, it was decided to 
prepare for flooding 500 acres of the infested area on their large asparagus 
ranch on Ryer Island. It was necessary to construct over five miles of 
levee to hold the water on this acreage. To furnish the water, three 12- 
inch pumps were kept running day and night pumping water from the 
river into irrigating canals on the ranch. Due to a mistake in checking- 
up on the level of the field, only about 450 acres were thoroughly flooded. 
Where the ground was covered only about six inches deep not quite 100 
per cent control was secured, but where it was covered to a depth of a 
foot or more, no centipedes have reappeared to date, which at present 
would seem to mean extermination. 
Soil Fumigants. Various experiments were conducted with soil 
fumigants during the past two years for the control of the garden centi¬ 
pede in the asparagus fields on Ryer Island. Paradichlorobenzene and 
orthodichlorobenzene and calcium cyanide were tested under a number 
of different conditions. Paradichlorobenzene proved very efficient in 
killing the little animals when one ounce of material to three linear feet 
was scattered along on both sides of the asparagus row, a garden hoe be¬ 
ing used to make the furrows close to the crowns. This experiment was 
conducted during the latter part of May when there was yet considerable 
