==Wasps== are a terrible scourge in some gardens.  They spoil a large quantity of fruit, and jeopardise the remainder by forcing the harvest before the crops are ready for gathering.  When the localities of the Wasps’ nests are known, it is a simple task to dispose of them.  Turpentine and gunpowder were formerly in vogue, especially among the younger members of the community, to whom a spice of danger is always an attractive element in the fun.  But these are clumsy methods of destruction and will not compare with the far easier remedy of poisoning the colonies by means of cyanide of potassium.  Dissolve one ounce of the drug in a quarter of a pint of water.  This will be sufficient to destroy several nests, but it is a deadly poison, and must be kept in a place of safety.  Soak a piece of rag in the fluid, and lay it over the entrance to the nest.  There is no occasion to run away; not a Wasp will venture out, and those which return from foraging will not lose their tempers and find yours, but at each successive attempt to enter their home they will become feebler, until they fall near or beneath the drugged rag.  After an hour or two the nest may be dug out, when every insect, including queen and pupae, will be found dead.

If the colonies lie beyond your frontier, or their positions cannot be ascertained, the enemy must be disposed of by stratagem and in detail.  One of the best modes of trapping them is to put some injured fruit beneath one of the trees, and over it a hand-light raised about three inches above the ground by stones or pieces of wood placed at the four corners.  This light must have a rather large hole at the top.  Upon it should rest another light from which egress is prevented, except through the apex of the lower light.  After the Wasps have visited the fruit, they will rise into the first light, and gradually find their way through the opening into the one above, from which not one insect in a hundred will escape.  In a trap of this kind we have seen an enormous number of Wasps and Hornets which had been lured to death within a few hours.

Another simple and effective method of destroying these pests is to pour a small quantity of ale mixed with sugar into glass jars and suspend them from branches of Pear or Plum trees.  The vessels must be emptied every few days and the liquid renewed.

[Illustration:  Wireworm (natural size and magnified)]

==Wireworm== is the most persistent and destructive of all the ground vermin.  There are fully a dozen species of beetles the larvae of which are known as ‘Wireworms,’ and of these the ‘Spring-Jacks,’ ‘Click-Beetles,’ and ’Blacksmiths’—­=Elater obscurus, E. lineatus=, and =E. ruficaudis=—­are the most prevalent.  The female beetle deposits her eggs in the earth in the height of the summer, and in due time the worms emerge and commence their depredations.  These worms have a tenure of three to five years in their subterranean homes, during which