Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-04-04
WAR ON wlRE-woRMs.

WAR ON WlRE-WORM MS.
VazSoas ways % Get RSd of the Dessruo.
tive and Noxious Pests.
These wire-worms. true and false.
have caused % much trouble and loss
to farmers that some entomologists
have undertaken . series Of expert
msnts to diseover some help or rem
edy. Notably, Prot Comstock, of
Cornell University, has done some ex-
cellent work in this direction. and has
made some discoveries that promise to
be of much value. He has cultivated
the worms in glass cases filed with
soil and having plants growing in
them. so that the habits of the worms
could be noted; the true wire-worms
are here referred to and not the myria-
pod.
The elatere or click beetles are long.
narrow. oval insects, varying in size
from one-tenth of an inch to two inches
in length, of q dark brownish color.
and have narrow waist, the joint of
which can be snapped in such a way
as to make a sudden jump, with a
clicking noise. The smaller beetles
are found in meadows and cultivated
fields; the largest kind. which has q
large oval spot on each side of the
middle that may be easily thought to
be an eye by uniformed persons, has
been found In large numbers in tho
decayed fallen trees in the woods and
in leaf mold. The beetles are too well
known to need further description.
The worms, or larvae. are brownish,
slender grubs pointed at each end and
having three legs only on each side.
No doubt the beetles do as much dam
age as the worms, but being better
able to.escape are not SO easily caugh.
European farmers have been in the
habit of evading the injuries by these
insects by various operations. as plow-
ing, narrowing or summer following.
SO as to starve them by destroying
their food, and also by sowing frag-
ments of rape-seed oil cake. which the
worms eat with avidity and kill them
selves. But Prof Comstock has hap
PLY succeeded in finding better way,
which promises to be effectual in the
destruction of these pests. He used bait
of sweetened corn-meal dough. fresh
cut clover. sliced potatoes and traps
of small boards laid over the bats,
in which the worms might hide.
These traps and bats secured
more beetles than worms, which
was an unexpected success. as
the capture of the mature insects
is better than that of the worms as de-
the means of propagation.
Twelve traps in three days caught 1872
beetles. The sweetened dough was
less effective than the fresh clover in
small punches; which was the best
bait. The bates were then poisoned
with paris green. and the traps aver
aged 23l dead beetles each in a field
from which a large number had heen
previously taken. Sixty-seven and
half per cent. of the beetles were
caught at night, and 81 per cent. Of
the beetles caught in uncovered traps
were taken in shallow ones into which
the insects had crawled. Some other
beetles which are known to injure the
roots of corn were taken in these
traps, and one useful as destroyer of
pernicious insects. a greenish black
beetle with metallic luster, was taken.
put which is to be spared as being
helpful and not noxiOus.
These experiments are of much in
crest and value as showing the way
% get rid of the pests, and as suggest
ng other and further trials by farmers
Henry Stewart, in n. Y.
Times.