ToL. VII. Xo. 149. 



THE AGRICULTUEAL NEWS. 



13 



%»\^?-X'*^ 



Pn 



INSECT NOTES. 



Scale Insects on Mahogany trees in Antigua. 



Mr. J. Jackson, Curator of the Botanic Station, 

 Antigua, sends the following note with reference to an 

 attack of scale insects on mahogany trees in Antigua: — 



A number of young mahogany trees (S/ricfciiia 

 Mahoijoni), planted in and around St. John's, are at the 

 present time attacked by the following scale insects : The 

 Brown Shield Scale {Lecaniiun hemitphncnrum), the 

 Hibiscus Shield Scale {Lccaninin ii>)/riiii), and the Orange 

 :Snow Scale (C/iioiiasjii« cifri). 



Of these, Lecaninm hi'mupliaericinn is perhaps the 

 most difficult to deal with, as several sprayings of rosin wash 

 .are required before all the insects are killed. 



L. nii/riiin can also be controlled by the use of rosin 



-wash. 



Applications of whale-oil soap will control the attacks 



of Chiunaspis citri. 



The above three insects are fairly common in Antigua. 

 They are figured, with others, in Pamphlets Nos. 7 and 22 of 

 the Imperial r)e[>artment of Agriculture — 'Scale Insects of the 

 Lesser Antilles', although the mahogany tree is not mentioned 

 in those pamiihlets as a host plant for the pasts. 



Two Flea Remedies. 



Fleas are the cause of so much personal annoyance, 

 and their part in the conveyance of bubonic plague is 

 now so well known, that every new means of getting rid 

 of this insect pest will be welcomed. Dr. L. O. Howard, 

 Chief of the Bureau of Entomology of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of A'^riculture, writes to Scieiic of November 29 

 last, to describe the following two remedies, which he 

 states are vouched for by careful persons, although he 

 himself has had no good opportunity of testing either. 



Dr. Howard writes : — 



l\Ir. E. ^I. Ehrhorn, the well-known Entmnologist who is 

 Deputy Commissioner of horticulture in (.'alifornia, gives me 

 the following ; ' Fill a soup plate with soap suds ; in the 

 centre place a glass of water with a scum of kerosene on top : 

 place the soup plate on the floor in an infested room, and set 

 fire to the kerosene at night. Fleas in the room will be 

 attracted, and will jump into the soap suds.' 



Another remedy is sent me by the well-known writer on 

 ants, ^liss Adele M. Fielde, with the request that I will make 

 it w'idely known. Miss Fielde states that during long residence 

 in Soutliern China, where fleas swarm even in clean houses, 

 , she made her own house innnune through many years, by 

 dis.solving alum in the white wash or kalsomine that covered 

 the interior walls, putting sheets of thick i)aper tliat had been 

 dipped in the solution of alum, underneath the floor matting, 

 and scattering pulverized alum in all crevices where insects 

 might lodge or breed. Powdered alum, she states, may he 

 sprinkled upon carpets already laid, and then brushed or 

 swept into their meshes with no injury to the carpets and 



with certainty of banishment to many insect pe.sts, including 

 both moths and fleas. 



Dr. Howard quotas the following extract from 

 Miss Fielde's letter: — 



Sheets that have beeji soaked in alum water and then 

 dried may profitably enclose those that are spread nearest to 

 the sleeper .... Fronr IjO to 20c. worth of alum judiciously 

 used in each room of the house will effect much good in the 

 prevention of dangerous insects. 



Mosquitos and Malarial Fever. 



Only a comparatively short tiuie has elapsed since 

 the so-called mosquito theory of disease was first brought; 

 forward, and even now many persons affect to believe 

 that there is no connexion between mosquitos and the 

 diseases whicli they are said to carry. 



That this relation exists has been abundantly 

 proved, and it is of interest to note that centuries ago 

 the medical men of India recognized such a relation 

 between mosquitos and at least one disease, i. e., mala- 

 rial fever. 



The following notes dealing with this point 

 appeared in the Tropical Ayrici.ltwrist for May 15, 

 1905 (p. 712), and were taken from a paper read by his 

 Excellency the (Jovernor, Sir. Henry Blake, before 

 a meeting of the Ceylon branch of the British Medical 

 Association: — ■ 



In the course of inquiries into the cause of an epidemic 

 of malarial fever in Colombo last year, I received a report 

 from the Sinhalese Jledical Association, in which it was 

 mentioned incidentally, that according to the ancient Hindoo 

 authorities on medicine, the chief causes of the disease are 

 impure air, and water, and the existence of mosquitos. 

 I requested more precise information showing that mosquitos 

 were associated with tlie causation of malarial fever, and in 

 reply, I received extracts from ancient Indian works. One of 

 these works, compiled from one of the lost Vedas or Hindoo 

 Scriptures, must be at least 1,400 years old, since it is mentioned 

 in writings of the sixth century. The extracts in question 

 referred to twelve kinds of mosquitos as causing life-destroy- 

 ing diseases : 'their bite', it is said, ' is most painful, and 

 causes disease, accompanied by fever, pain of limbs, vomiting, 

 diarrhcea, thir.st, giddiness, .shivering, burning sen.sation, etc' 



Other mosquitos are also referred to. whose bite 

 causes inconvenience such as swelling, itching, etc. 

 Sir Henry Blake states that in order to satisfy himself 

 on the point he invited five Sanscrit scholars of 

 acknowleged authority, to meet at Queen's House to 

 discuss the subject. These gentlemen te.stified to the 

 correcttranslation and authenticityof the extracts. These 

 passages, therefore, says the Tropical Af/riculturist, 

 written possibly 8,000 years ago, and certainly not less 

 than 1,400 years ago, are of singidar interest, foreshad- 

 owing as they do the great discoveries of Manson and 

 Ross. 



The twenty-sixth annual sale of live stock from the 

 Ooverimient farm, Trinidad, will take plaro ii,t Valsayii, St. 

 .Joseph, on Wednesday, February 1 2 next. A large number 

 of high-class animals are to be disposed of, including eighty- 

 four head of pure and i-ross-bred cattle, a few mules, pigs of 

 the Berk.shire, Poland-China, Duroc-Jer.sey, and other breed.s, 

 and also poultry, ducks, and pigeons. 



