Evening star., 1937-04-16
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

gets its name, are unlike anything else
in the insect world.
It's leaflike body, its small but vicious
head, its general appearance, its clean
liness-these are features of one OF the
strangest Of all created things
Many persons on seeing their first
mantis, draw back in horror, thinking
1t can injure them in some way. They
are In error. The praying mantis offers
no harm to humans, but only to careless
insects, upon which it feeds. Then those
folded arms SO piously held, dart out to
full length and the unwary prey is drawn
up to that cruel head.
X
There Is nothing uninteresting in a
yard, even those insects which we spray
against and continually fight.
Nor does one have to be an entomol-
ogist to realize the wonder of insect life.
Today practically everything grown in
gardens is infested with one or more
insect pests, to say nothing OF blights,
rusts, fungi and diseases, such as the
sO-called mosaic. Nematodes and other
minute forms OF life use plants as hosts
and spoil them for our uses, but not for
theirs. Life is dog eat dog" affair.
While we try to rid our ornamental
plants and shrubs, our trees and Veget-
ables our rock garden plants and all
the rest, OF insects, let us keep in mind
the real interest of the creatures we are
trying to slay.
In this way the amateur gardener can
get great deal OF extra interest out of
his hobby.
A japanese beetle is an interesting
beetle.
While one gladly would forego the op-
portunity for close personal inspection
OF it, If it happens to come down in the
garden, find out as much about it as pos
sible, and especially look carefully at a
few OF them, in order to know them when
seen again and also to be able to ap-
preciate them as insects.
There are many sorts OF strange in
sects in all gardens, some of them harm
ful, some of them as innocent as the
proverbial Spring lamb
Those curious pill bugs that hide under
stones for instance. How they scuttle
away when the rock is overturned!
We suppose no one would want to
make pets of them or undertake their
study except as a scientific investigation,
but they have fascinated countless gen.
erations OF children and their elders no
less
Then there is that "bug" many think
fabulous, the so-called doodle bug"
which lived in the sawdust around old
fashioned ice houses
Country legend tells how the doodle
bugs can be brought out Of their holes
by the tntonation Of a certain song at
the edge of the sawdust
We suppose there are scores of inter-
estlng insects and small mammals, which
most OF us have had an opportunity to
see, but have never seen, mainly because
we are not used to looking so small.
TWO things are required of us, in this
respect, the desire to see which is inter-
est, and the intellectual determination
to realize how small many of these
things are and how closely We must look
to see them.
Another thing is necessary and that is
to hold no living thing too mean or too
little to be OF interest Modern science
has shown us how infinitesimally small
but how -wrecking are certain or
ganisms.
Life is all around us and we must see
as much OF it as we can. One place we
must never forget is the small home
garden.