860 Journal of the Department of Agriculture. 



An ordinary garden syringe is tlie best means of distributing the 

 bait. A small quantity of arsenate of lead, a packet of sugar, a 

 barrel, tub, or drum of convenient size, an improvised pail to carry 

 the poison by hand from tree to tree, and a syringe are the require- 

 ments. The bar across the top of a parafhn tin serves as a handle, 

 and also prevents any animal from drinking 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 awa3% 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, guava, or loquat trees are present they shonld 

 be given one or two preliminary baitings during October so rs to 

 destroy any fruit flies that may have harboured there during the 

 winter or that may arise from mjiggots in any late-maturing fruits. 

 This will prevent the flies migrating to summer fruit la'er 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 prevalei.ce ( f the pest in the 

 vicinity. As rain will dissolve and wash off the sweet ingredient 

 and leave the specks of poison in unattractive form, the baiting should 

 be repeated after every rain or during bright spells in rainy wenther 

 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 neighbours 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 shrubs, as well as wild fruit 

 plants — prickly pear, passion plant, granadilla, blackberry or 

 bramble, Kaffir plum, Kei apple, or Dingaan 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 harbouring there or that may alight to rest on their 

 journey from near-by untreated premises. 



The later maturing kinds of fruit — late peaches, apples, pears, 

 quinces — should be baited when half-grown and the baiting continued 

 till the fruit is all oft\ Where citrus fruit is the main crop it is 

 advisable to bait any late summer fruit trees for two or three weeks 

 after their crop is off so as to destroy flies emerging from the soil 

 beneath promptly, and thus prevent their migrating to the citrus 

 orchard. This is an important matter, because fruit flies may bring 

 about serious loss to shippers of citrus fruit by stinging the fruit in 

 attempts to oviposit and thereby injure the surface sufficiently to serve 

 as a point of entrance for organisms that cause the fruit to decay on 



