142 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties that 

 the insects have thrived best and proven most destructive, though it has 

 been reported that the vineyards in Fresno County were seriously 

 infested during the years 1910-1911. The writer has also observed very 

 severe infestations of the citrus trees in Marysville during the year 1912. 

 Little reliance can be placed in the argument that mealy bugs can not 

 withstand the warm, dryer climate, though we would hardly expect 

 them to prove as serious as along the coast. 



Means of Distribution. 



The adult female mealy bugs are able to move about during their 

 entire existence and the young are exceedingly active, covering quite a 

 long distance in a very short time. The adults are very hardy and able 

 to withstand long periods without feeding, especially when they are 

 ready to begin egg laying, which may be any time after they are one 

 half or two thirds matured. At this period they may be easily dis- 

 tributed from one district to another in picking boxes, picking sacks, or 

 on ladders, clothing or any other carrier. The eggs of the mealy bugs 

 are deposited in loose, cottony masses, which enables them to adhere 

 readily to any object. The feet of birds, clothing, ladders, or anything 

 that might come in contact with these egg masses, are sure to carry some 

 of the eggs along, and this, without doubt, is the most ready means of 

 distributing the mealy bugs from one place to another. The larger 

 insects carry not only the young, which may crawl upon them, but also 

 the eggs from tree to tree. Mealy bugs, like other scale insects and 

 plant lice, secrete a honey dew which attracts large numbers of insects, 

 such as bees, flies, ants, and certain species of beetles, etc., which are 

 often found abundant, walking over the egg masses and feeding upon 

 the honeydew. In some instances the writer has found these insects 

 almost enveloped in the cottony egg masses, portions of which they 

 carried off with them. Of course an infestation must be severe to offer 

 these means of distribution, and the slighter the infestation the less 

 likelihood there is of any of these agencies causing a reinfestation. In 

 some cases, in Ventura County, the writer could plainly point out the 

 box rows by the infestations of the mealy bug, which had evidently 

 been carried from the infested orchards to those subsecjuently attacked. 

 In any community, then, contiguous to an infested district and desiring 

 to remain free from this pest, certain regulations may be necessary to 

 prevent the artificial distribution. These regulations will be discussed 

 under the heading "Quarantine Regulations.' 



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Quarantine Regulations. 



Granting that the mealy bugs are controllable, it is always desirable 

 to prevent the distribution of such pests from an infested to a clean 

 district, even though the regulations adopted may work some hardships 

 upon a given locality. The state law has contemplated such situations 

 when it has given the State Horticultural Commissioner authority to 

 quarantine districts within the State against certain other districts to 

 prevent the distribution of injurious pests. Such a plan may well be, 

 and has often been, adopted by a county to prevent not only the impor- 



