BOARD OF HORTICX^LTURE 111 



Experience in South Africa during the last six years has shown that by 

 using the Mally Fruit Fly Remedy, fruitgrowers in town and country alike need 

 not suffer the loss of their fruit on account of the fruit fly. 



The remedy eonsists in sprinkling a very small quantity of poisoned halt — a 

 dilute syrup rendered poisouous by the addition of arsenate of lead — at frequent 

 iiitervals over the trees whose fruit it is designed to protect. The remedy acts 

 by fatally poisoning the flies that would otherwise sting the fruit and deposit 

 eggs that would develop into maggots and spoil the fruit. The bait should be 

 prepared as follows : 



Sugar, 21/2 Ibs. or 25 Ibs. 



Arsenate of lead (paste) , 3 oz. or 2 Ibs. 



Water, 4 gallons or 40 gallons 



The lesser quantities are for a parafin tin, the larger for a barrel. The 

 arsenate of lead should be thoroughly raixed with a small quantity of water and 

 then stirred into the bulk. The sugar may be poured into the füll amouut of 

 water and stirred tili it is all dissolved. The proportion of arsenate of lead is 

 more than ample to ensure the death of flies that take the bait, and is about as 

 much as can be used with safety to the foliage of peaeh trees. Rain water (from 

 an ordinary tank) is preferable to that from a stream. 



Made as recommended. the bait does not attract bees to an appreciable extent, 

 but house flies and a number of other species feed on it to their destruction. 



An ordinary garden syringe is the best means of distributing the bait. 



The finest "rose" on the syringe should be used, and only a very small 

 quantity of bait should be applied to each tree — about a pint to a tree about 10 

 feet high and 10 feet wide. It is particularly important not to overspray stone 

 fruits owing to their extreme liability to injury. The man should walk around 

 the tree. keeping two or more yards away, and should distribute the spray in a 

 series of short squirts directed so that the liquid will fall in innumerable small 

 drops over and through the tree, and with no more in one part than another. A 

 Single fill of the syringe will often be enough for one tree. and thus the man will 

 be back at the starting place by the time the syringe is empty. The mixture should 

 be stirred before each filling of the syringe in order to ensure uniformity of 

 strength. 



The number of applications necessary to protect a crop will vary with local 

 conditions and with the season. The aim should be to have poison present as long 

 as there are fruit flies about to take it. Where citrus, mango, giiava or loquat 

 trees are present they should be given one or two preliminary baitings during 

 October so as to destroy any fruit flies that may have harbored there during 

 the Winter or that may arise from maggots in any late maturing fruits. This will 

 prevent the flies migrating to summer fruit later on. The first application should 

 be made to the earliest susceptible kinds of fruit by the time they are half-grown 

 and repeated every seven to fourteen days, depending on the prevalence of the 

 pest in the vicinity. As rain will dissolve and wash off the sweet ingredieut and 

 leave the specks of poison in unattractive forms, the baiting should be repeated 

 after every rain or during bright spells in rainy weather throughout the fly 

 season. Very likely a Single application every three or four weeks will suffice 

 after midsummer, especially if there has been a succession of early treatments, 

 and if neighbors close by have also adopted the treatment. and if, at the same 

 time, reasonable care has been taken to collect and destroy fallen fruit. Hedges, 

 vines, coffee plants and ornamental shrults, as well as wild fruit plants — prickly 

 pear, passion plant, granadilla, blackberry or bramble, Kaffir plum, Kei apple or 

 Dlngaan apricot. etc. — in or immediately bordering on the garden or orchard, 

 should be treated so that they will serve as "carriers" to keep bait available for 

 fruit flies that may be harboring there or that may alight to rest on their journey 

 from nearby untreated premises. 



