Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1873-11-28

| A gentleman Of Waynesboro', who has
| been for forty years studying the origin
and peculiarities Of the bugs that trouble
the farmer SO much, sends the VINDIcA-
TOR the following interesting history OF
| them:
| THE CUT WORM.
| Last Spring | set out my cabbage and
tomato plants, and the cut worms COM
menced their work. / sometimes found
as many as seventy plants cut off in one
night. commenced hunting them, and
killed hundreds every morning. I had q
strawberry plants, of an improved kind,
that had set in two fence corners last fall
and covered them with straw to protect
them from the winter. They were sur
rounded with grass on all sides. When [
raised the straw in the Spring I found a
great many cut worms, and commenced
killing and counting them. I killed 252
the first morning. killed around the q
plants 700 worms in one weeks time. I
caught 80 and put them into a tin box,
filling it half full of earth. Keeping it in
shady place and feeding them every day,
transformation took place, first with a
long, black, sleek cut worm. 1t shed off
the cut worm skin and formed hard and
smooth cocoon, pointed at one end. l
watched it very closely for several days,
when I found to my surprise it came out a
horse fly. l still had 20 of the common
grey or ash-colored worms that are so nu-
merous in garden making time. They go
through the same changes as the first, ex-
cept it takes a little longer to complete it's
transformation, and it comes out COM
mon candle-fy. .se
THE GREEN TOMATO WORM.
After they have eaten the leaves and
few of the green tomatoes, they clinch
their claws into the stem of a leaf, and
there remain until a number of little
things, which resemble eggs, come on their
backs. But upon examination with a
magnifying glass, 1 found each of them to
be little cocoon. There are little black
spots on the worm out of which come
very small worm, and each of these forms
a cocoon, with the finest silk over it, and
in few days it comes out small green
fly, not more than an eighth of an inch in
length. 1 have counted as many as sixty
of these little cocoons ON one worm.
THE PEACH TREE WORM
is a small white worm that has brown
head. 1t cuts the bark off of the roots of
the tree, and will very soon kill it, In the
months of July and August their existence
las a worm) terminates; then they are
transformed. They cut the bark from the
tree. out of which they form rough CO.
coon, about three-fourths of an inch long,
around them, with the endnear, and some-
times above the surface of the ground
This cocoon lies for several weeks, and a
small soft, downy fly comes out of it, of a
blush black color, with bright red stripe
around it. If you will get one of these
cocoons and put it into nice white bottle,
tying a thin cloth over the mouth to keep
the fly from escaping after it leaves the
cocoon, and keep it in the bottle, it will
deposite its eggs in the bottle. The eggs
will hatch, and with a magnifying glass
you can see them. A hard crust or cocoon
forms over them and they remain in their
little cells few days and hatch out lit
tie gnat.
THE JOINT WORM.
This worm often destroys whole fields of
wheat. The stalk is perforated by small
fly, generally about the joint,) and the
egg deposited. The egg matches, the worm
commences to eat the tender stalk. which
checks the sap and prevents it from flow
ing to the top of the stalk OF the head
Should there be vitality enough in the
stalk above the joint to produce a small
head and few grains, they will be shriveI-
ed and almost worthless. When your
wheat is ripe cut off few of the straws
that are crooked and have some little hard
knots about the joints, and put them into
clear bottle, tying piece OF thin cloth
over the top. Hang it at your window and
you will see that little black fly will hatch
out of the knots OH the stalk. The stalk
sometimes gets too hard for them to cut
out. l have found them dead; by cutting
off the Jumps you may find them.
AN UNKNOWN WORM.
There is a worm that do not know the
name of. It is Of a brownish color, some
times very numerous about meal barrels.
They are from three-quarters to an inch in
length, hard and smooth, and have joints
in them. Very slow to travel, should there
be flour or meal on the floor you can see
small marks where they have travelled
They, too, have time for Transformation.
They first get into kind of stupor and
contract in length but get thicker; then
the form of a wing will appear on each
side. They remain in this state but few
days, and then shed off the old shell and
come out a bug of light brownish color.
and by the action of the air and sun in a
few days turn black, You can see them
often at night, in the summer, running
briskly over your floor
b THE CATERPILLAR
h There are two kinds of these pests. The
common striped caterpillar, after eating
the leaves off of your apple tree. crawl off
and make preparations for transformation
1t will crawl up on the sides of a house.
and get under the edges of the weather.
boarding OF some other suitable Mace
where it will wrap itself up in cocoon
like the silkwOrm, where it remains until
the proper time, when it comes out bean
full butterfly, The butterfly deposites its
eggs in the fall around small twigs of the
apple tree, where they remain and stand
the storms of winter, and in the sprino
just when the buds begin to put out. thee,
hatch and begin to feed upon them. and
will very 'soon form web; this is the
proper time to destroy them-when the
web is so small that you can scaacely M.
tice it Neglect them now and let them
rip, and they will soon have web in .
crotch as large as peck measure. Thev
have stripped your tree of leaves, and left
mark that will cauSn OaOn1a 10 ,,.aI--o