BLISTER BEETLES ARE here, millions of them, and if you have a caragana hedge, watch out. The blister beetle is a slim bug, about three-quarters of an inch long, dark-colored, and some times with a metallic luster. It is active, I and will take to flight quickly when disturbed. I know nothing of its origin or breeding places, or whether it is hatched locally or at a distance, but I have never noticed anything in the vicinity which I should consider the young of the species.    BLISTER BEETLES IN THIS locality appear suddenly in great swarms, and their presence is usually made manifest by the bare stalks of tender caragana shoots which they have stripped of foliage. They are said to prefer reguminous plants for food. These include, among members of the pea family, the caragana and sweet pea, and among the field crops one would suppose them to be partial to alfalfa and other clovers. I don't know about this. If a swarm which has settled on a caragana hedge is disturbed by a heavy drenching of water from a garden hose the whole swarm may leave that feeding spot and settle on another hedge on the next lot.    I HAVE READ THAT Because of this tendency to move when disturbed these beetles are not easily poisoned as a spray causes them to leave for more hospitable quarters. This may be true, nevertheless, the beetles can sometimes be poisoned. On Monday evening two hedges in our neighborhood and a small clump of caragana on my own lot were found heavily infested with blister beetles which had already stripped most of the leaves from the spring growth. One hedge, and my own little clouster, were sprayed heavily with Paris green from an automatic sprayer which sent the liquid into every part of the growth. Next morning not a bug could be found on either lot, and the sidewalk, which was on the leeward side of my caragana, was plentifully sprinkled with dead beetles. On the other hedge, which had been sprayed with a small hand sprayer there were still thousands of beetles hard at work down in the denser growth, where presumably, the liquid had not reached.    FROM THIS EXPERIENCE I should recommend for these beetles a thorough spraying with Paris green-a good teaspoonful to a gallon of water-delivered with sufficient force to wet all the foliage. I suppose arsenate of lead would be equally effective, but in my case I find that the arsenate clogs the fine screen of the sprayer more quickly then does Paris green. I have been told that the blister beetle will also attack delphinium, and, as a precaution, I am spraying everything in sight.    I WATCHED A ROBIN Picking up grasshoppers, and at first I supposed that it was eating them, which robins do quite freely. But on closer inspection I found that instead of eating the 'hoppers the bird was making a collection. It picked one after another, and in some mysterious way it was able to pick a fresh one without letting the last one drop. When it had gathered about 20 of the little hoppers and had quite a visible mouthful, it flew off with them, presumably to feed its young.    TO THE ROSE GROWER about the most annoying pest of the garden is the rose beetle, a small brown, winged insect, about the size of a ladybug, with a long, sharp snout. With that snout it pierches the rose buds and ruins them, and nobody seems to have discovered any effective way of dealing with it except the old-fashioned one of catching and squashing it. This beetle does not eat the foliage, therefore the ordinary leaf poisons do not affect it. It is hard-shelled and immune to contact poisons such as are used for aphis. The bug will sometimes take flight when disturbed, but often it will I ""play dead,"" dropping to the ground and remaining motionless until danger has passed. Some rose growers take advantage of this habit by spreading a cloth around the base of a rosh bush and then gently shaking the bush. Often the bugs will drop off onto the cloth and then they can be gathered up and destroyed.  A FRIEND ASKED ME THE other day if I knew of any way to get rid of ants on peony plants. I didn't, and I don't. But as a matter of fact, the ants do the blossoms no harm. They do not eat the foliage or the buds, but are interested in the little drops of honey that exude from the growing buds. In gathering peonies for the house it is a good plan to leave them lying for a short time in a shady spot out of doors, when the ants will leave them, otherwise one is apt to find ants running all over the house.