Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-09-10
For the Freeman.
A Chat with Farmers.
ABOUT NOXIOUS INSECTS.
BY AGRICOLA.

We have written about the beetle called
the cockchaffer, and here recall the subject
to give place to the following remarkable
paragraph, cut from the Boston Morning
Journal:
ION late visitation of cockchaffers, nc
fewer than one hundred and thirty tons OF
the beetles were collected near Lutzen.
berg, Prussia, the collectors being paid a
half penny per pound for the entire catch
The beetles are used for manure, and
dried and broken up for feeding poultry
On returning to the pea weevlls, which
were the subject of our last paper, we will
say: the crow, blackbird and Baltimore
oriole, or hanging bird, are the mortal
enemies of these nOXtous insects. The
oriole splits open the green pods of the
pea and captures the grubs, thus contrib
uting greatly to prevent their increase
There is one remarkable fact in regard to
the depreciation of these insects-they
never destroy the germs of the peas so MS
to prevent their reproduction.
Another class of snout beetles. called
attelahus, have longer heads, with shouts
sometimes short and thick, and sometimes
long, slender and curved Their eyes are
round and the antennH are implanted
near the middle of the snout. Some OF
this family are very injurious to the leaves,
fruit and seeds of the plants. Some of
them roll up the edge of leaves in the
shape of thimble to furnish shelter for
the eggs and young, and afterwards de
your the leaves themselves.
The so-called red-tailed species, which
have Il cylindrical head, blue-b black anten-
nae, legs and breast, and red wing covers,
are found on leaves of oak trees in the
months of June and July Two or three
beetles of this family are very hurtful 10
the vines, especially in Europe. Whole
vineyards are sometimes stripped of their
leaves, and fruit trees despoiled of their
fruit and foliage. AS yet they have not
done much harm in this country.
The snout beetles called CrerlthianS are
of different form from other weevils.
Their body is long, narrow and cylindrical.
Their snout projects in straight line, and
varies much in the two sexes and in indi-
viduals of the same sex. The feelers are
small and the untenn@ and legs short.
These insects live under the bark and in
the trunks of trees. OF their habits we
us yet know but little.
But one species of this beetle is known
in England. They are of II brownish
color, ornamented with yellow spots and
wearing deep burrows, whose sides are
punctured. They appear on the trunks of
the white oak, in the months of June and
July. The eggs are deposited in the holes
punctured in the bark by the females,
each hole containing only one egg. The
grubs bore into the solid wood, casting
out the chips rs fast as they go. The full
grown grub measures more than an inch
in length. Each segment is mounted upon
pair of legs, and the hinder extremties
of the body are supported by a fleshy
prop-leg. The last segment is horny and
followed out at the end, and the edges are
furnished with teeth. With this scoop the
grub shovels out its burrow. These in
sects are most numerous in trees that have
been cut down for timber or fuel; but the
living tree does not always escape.
The rest of the weevil tribe differ in
size and structure from all others. They
are short and thick, the first joint being
longer than the others. Their antenn@
are bent near the middle but their feelers
are not perceptible.
The gray sided curcu(io is small, pale
UlOWH D0SllcB WuOoC llNSo III
trunks of trees on which the beetle may
be found the last of May or the first of
June.
Another species called poles is found in
great abundance on board fences, on the
sides of new buildings and on the trunks
of pine trees, during the same months as
the last named species. These are very
destructive to the pine forests. Wilson
says of them, "Would it be believed OF a
fly no larger than a grain of rice, should
silently and in one season, destroy some
thousand acres of pine trees, many of
them from two TO three feet in diameter,
and hundred and fifty feet high! Yet
whoever passes along the highway from
Georgia to Charlestown, in South Carroll
ma, about twenty miles from the former
place, can learn striking and melancholy
proof of the fact"