52 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA. 



areas this plan would of course be well nigh impossible, 

 but on small areas, and where valuable plants had to be 

 protected, the system is perfect. In laying these pieces 

 amongst the crop care should be taken so that children 

 and domestic animals cannot have access to it, but where 

 the poison is used as a spray only there cannot be, as I 

 have previously shown in Part II., the slightest danger 

 attached to its use. In the case of tomatoes and like tender 

 plants spraying should be carried out with extra care, one 

 of the largest growers of these plants in Victoria having 

 on two occasions saved the whole of his plants and crop 

 by adopting the so-called " bran and arsenic " plan as 

 here described. 



Birds, again, are most valuable helps to the grower, and 

 although small birds, cuckoos excepted, will seldom tackle 

 these caterpillars, turkeys, fowls, &c., will destroy immense 

 numbers of them. 



Catching the moths in nets made for the purpose is a 

 good pastime for children, and by this means the number 

 of egg-producing moths may be greatly lessened, thereby 

 minimizing the evil for the coming season. 



