568 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



a mosquito injects its poisonous saliva into the system of its vic- 

 tim when feeding'. This can readily be seen by scraping away the 

 outer bark of an infested limb and observing the red effects and 

 blotched appearance caused by the punctures of the beaks of the 

 scale insects. The fact that it is suctorial also renders it impos- 

 sible to kill it by the arsenical poisons, since these insecticides are 

 effective only upon biting or chewing insects. 



Fifth, another reason that it is so injurious is that it is hard to 

 kill. Common insecticides are not effective against it. A paper, 

 in the southeastern portion of this State, published that this pest 

 was increasing, notwithstanding the fact that the citizens were 

 using Bordeaux mixture and Paris green against it. This is not 

 surprising. The Bordeaux mixture is not an insecticide but a 

 fungicide. It is never recommended for the destruction of any 

 kind of insects although it may repel a few such as the flea beetles. 

 Paris green cannot kill a suctorial insect such as the scale because 

 the poison must be eaten or taken internally as a stomach poison 

 in order to effect the destruction of the pest. One might ask the 

 question, what are the natural enemies of this pest and why has 

 it not been destructive to the fruit interests of other countries 

 before this time? It is here devoured bv the American varietv of 

 lady bugs or lady beetles and, perhaps, a few others of the smaller 

 species of parasites but is so small that the larger parasites of 

 the larger scale insects do not work the destruction of this that 

 they do of our native scales. 



There is in this room, at the present time. Prof. C. L. Marlatt, As- 

 sistant Entomologist of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, who went to China and there found the native home of this 

 insidious pest. He also found that it was there being held in check 

 by a lady beetle, or lady bird, known as the Chinese lady beetle. He 

 collected some specimens of this predaceous insect and brought them 

 to Washington. There they thrive and they have been successfully 

 introduced into the orchards of some portions of our country; but 

 this work is yet in its experimental stage and entomologists do not 

 advise orchardists to wait until the imported lady beetles can de- 

 stroy the San Jos6 Scale. At present this delay is almost sure to 

 end in the total destruction of the fruit trees. In the course of time 

 the natural enemies may suppress the pest, but at the present the 

 efforts of man are needed to control it. Fortunately, several effec- 

 tive remedies are known and those we shall mention later. 



It is desirable to know how this pest is disseminated or carried 

 from place to place. To a limited extent, as in orchards, it is 

 carried in the following waj^s: 



First, by larger insects upon which the little pests climb oi* fall 

 and by which they are carried to greater or lesser distance. Sev- 



