Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-09-24
For The Freeman
4 Chat with Farmers.
BY AGRICOLA.
ABOUT NOXIOuS INSECTS.

The warmer temperature of May wakes
TO active life myriads of insects. They
come forth from their winter quarters to
enjoy the sunshine and heat Thousands
of bees and flies sport among the bursting
buds aud tender foliage of the trees, and
the very ground is teeming with insect
life. Swarms Of beetles launch into the
air with dronish flight. Among these
are the bark beetles which have wintered
in some old tree in thousands of openings
which they have made in the bark and
wood. They enjoy themselves for few
days in the open air, when they choose
their mates and make ready to lay their
eggs. They gaaw little holes through the
bark of the trunks and limbs of the pine
tree, and there drop their eggs. Their
work is now done, and they soon die.
In the autumn may be found full grown
grubs which have Matched from their eggs.
These do the mischief. The beetles have
gnawed. the holes in the bark and wood,
but the grubs devour the soft inner sub
stance, and after they have completed
their transformations they work their way
to the surface and make ready to escape
when the time shall come. Their depre-
datons interrupt the descent of the sap,
and prevent the formation of new wood.
The tree languishes and prematurely dies.
This boring carpenter (as his name i'm
plies) has cylindrical body of a brownish
color, a rounded head sunk deep into the
thoraX, and short and curved antenna
which terminate with an oval knot. The
wing covers are cut off obliquely, Or hof-
lowed oIt at the hinder extremity. These
iasects multiply very rapidly. and where
they abound they do much injury.
About the year 1880 these beetles made
their appearance in the mining districts OF
Germany, and in three years whole forests
disappeared beneath their ravages. Pines
and frs are the most subject to their dep
rotations. The elm and red cedar have
each their bark beetles. The pitch pine
has two species which mite their efforts
to work its destruction. These abound
more in the middle states than in New
England.
The blight beetles. so called. from the
injury they do, attack the apple, apricot
and plum trees. The malady shows itself
during midsummer, by the sudden with
ering of the leaves and fruit, and the dis.
celebrations of the bark, followed by the
death of the part affected. This is known
to result from the eating of the grub
I of the insect through the sap wood, in the
hardest part of the wood, beginning al
the root of the bud. By this process the
central vessels which convey the ascend,
! ing sap are divided, and the circulation is
cut off. Hence whitening and death arc
The result. This grub is finally transform.
ed into pupa, and these into little beetle
which escapes from the tree in June oil
July. She does not die, however, unit
she has returned to the tree and deposited
her eggs.
There are many other species Of beetles
whose grubs bore into the solid wood Of
trees. The red ShOuIdered opate is one Of
them. This beetle is of Il deep black
color, and punctured all over, and meas
ures II fifth of an inch in length The
most powerful and destructive wood eat.
ing insects are the long horned beetles
called borers, by way of distinction. Some
of them live altogether in the trunks o.
trees; others live in the limbs. Some de-
YOUR the wood, others the pith: some are
found in shrubs, or in the stems of plants
others are confined to roots. But the
same kind of borer is not found in plants
which differ in their nocturnal character
Nearly one hundred species of these Dor.
ers have been found in Massachusetts
alone. Most of these remain upon the
shrub or tree during the daytime and fly
abroad at night. OF all these the female
is larger and more robust than the male
Another special arrangement is fount
in these insects, worthy of notice, viz. q
iointed tube is placed at the end of the
body, capable of being extended or drawn
in like the joints of telescope, by means
Of which they convey their eggs into hole;
in the bark of plants. Some of these
borers leave the end of their burrows
open, out of which they cast their chips
others fill up the passages behind them
with their castings. From one to three
years are required for them to attain tc
| full growth.