INJURIOUS INSECTS. 55 



no practicable counteractors can be suggested. The application of strong 

 tobacco-water mixed with soap-suds, has been frequently recommended, and 

 is the safest and best remedy for the gardener. Oil of turpentine has also 

 been recommended, by M. De Thosse, in "Mem. d'Agriculture," for their 

 destruction in the following manner: — A few handfuls of earth were put 

 into a bowl, on which a small quantity of the oil of turpentine was poured, 

 which he rendered into a liquid state by the addition of water; with 

 this mixture the points of the shoots infected was moistened, which had 

 the effect not only of killing the insects but the eggs also; and the evapo- 

 ration of the oil had for some time afterwards the effect of keeping off 

 other insects from the shoots. 



Oils do not readily mix with water, but the mode here adopted of 

 mixing it with earth before the water was added, had the effect of dividing 

 the essential particles into sufficiently minute parts, to cause a complete 

 division of it through the whole mixture. Oil of turpentine should, however, 

 be used with great caution upon the tender shoots of plants and trees, as 

 it will not only kill the Aphides but the young shoots also. So also with 

 a weak solution of arsenic, as we have frequently experienced from various 

 experiments made with a view to discover a speedy remedy for the destruc- 

 tion of this pest. 



To the agriculturist we can offer no remedy, but would here observe, 

 as we have so frequently done in the pages of "The Naturalist," that 

 he destroys his best friends in the very act of destroying these injurious 

 insects, which in a certain measure are hidden from his eye; while the 

 sparrow, lark, rook, crow, blackbird, thrush, chaffinch, greenfinch, bullfinch, 

 hedge-sparrow, robin, tomtit, and many other useful feathered friends being 

 in his eyes conspicuous offenders, are considered nuisances, and receive orders 

 to depart this life — awful idea! it is quite suffocating! All this is done, 

 and another year rolls round — How do things stand now? Why, your 

 grain and fruit crops are in the jaws of a far more desti'uctive enemy, which 

 you cannot shoot or destroy otherwise; quite a blight to your expectations, 

 after all the pains you had taken to extirpate these vermin Birds! How- 

 ever, a name once in vogue will have its day. Birds are not the only 

 destroyers of the Aphides, for they have their insect enemies as well; a 

 variety of species of different orders and genera, keep them within certain 

 limits, one or two of which we will here describe. Hylophila nemorum, 

 belonging to the Hemipterous order, who with its long beak taps the Aphis 

 through the skin and drinks it empty. Hemerobius, L., the larvae of which 

 have justly been called the lions of the Aphides. They are furnished with 

 a pair of long crooked mandibles, which terminate in a sharp point, and 

 are perforated. When amongst the Aphides, like wolves in a sheepfold, 

 they make dreadful havoc; half a minute suffices them to suck the largest, 



