470 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY 



spraying with arsenate of lead while there is no fruit on the 

 bushes. At other times white hellebore should be dusted 

 or sprayed over the plants. 



The Currant Aphis (Myzus ribis}. In the spring or early 

 summer the leaves of the currant bushes, and less frequently 

 the gooseberry bushes, become more or less blistered and swollen 

 and curled. The distorted parts are usually conspicuously 

 red in color and soon attract attention. Examination will 

 reveal colonies of small yellowish-green aphids on the under- 

 side of the leaves. 



When only a few of the leaves are affected they should be 

 picked off and destroyed. Spraying with kerosene emulsion 

 or whale-oil soap or tobacco extract is effective if care is taken 

 to reach the aphids before they have become well protected 

 by the curling of the leaves. If the bushes are sprayed during 

 the winter with sulphur-lime solution many of the eggs will be 

 destroyed. 



Scale -insects. Several different species of scale-insects, the 

 most important of which is the San Jose scale (see page 445), 

 often attack the currant and gooseberry bushes and sometimes 

 prove very destructive. The best remedy is to prune out the 

 parts that are badly infested and spray the rest with sulphur- 

 lime solution during the winter. 



The Yellow Currant-fly (Epochra canadensis). This fly is 

 about the size of the house-fly, but the body is more slender 

 and the wings are longer and narrower. The body and legs 

 are pale yellow or brownish and the wings are marked with 

 brownish cross bands. This insect passes the winter in the 

 pupal stage in the ground or in rubbish below the bushes. 

 The flies issue early in the spring and the females deposit 

 their eggs in the berries just underneath the skin. The larvae 

 feed upon the pulp and seeds, and when full grown they leave 

 the berries, which have dropped to the ground, and enter 

 the ground to pupate. These fallen berries should, if possible, 

 be destroyed before the larvae leave them. If chickens are 

 allowed to run under the bushes they will pick up many of 

 the larvae and pupae. An effective but rather expensive way to 

 save the crop of berries is' to cover the entire bush with mosquito 



