10 April, 1916.] 



Inxect Pests. 



213 



INSECT PESTS OF THE FRUIT, FLOWER, AND 

 VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



AND HOW TO TREAT THEM. 



By G . French, Jr., Government Entomologist. 



The varieties of insects which attack plants are numbered by thou- 

 sands; many are distributed all over the world; others, again, are 

 strictly local. At certain seasons, j^i'iiicipally in the hot and dry 



weather, they practically eat 

 everything before them, and 

 in some countries cause 

 famines. Many insects which 

 formerly lived on our native 

 plants have adapted them- 

 selves to altered conditions, 

 and now live on cultivated 

 plants. Take, for instance, 

 the apple-root borer, one of 

 the worst pests with which 

 orchardists have to contend. 

 These insects formerly lived on 

 wattles (acacias), but are now 

 the cause of apples, pears, 

 vines, and other plants dying. 

 Another insect, the painted 

 apple moth, which also used to 

 feed on the leaves of wattles, 

 is becoming a serious pest to 

 all kinds of fruits, as well as 

 garden and other cultivated 

 plants. The principal causes 

 for this change of habits are 

 the clearing of land where for- 

 merly their Jiatural food 

 plants grew ; and the destruc- 

 tion of insectivorous birds, 

 which are often ruthlessly 

 destroyed by boys, or by 

 the poison which is laid 

 for rabbits and other vermin. 



Fig. 1. 



-Woolly Aphis, or American Blight 



(Eriosemd huiif/cra). 



Unfortunately for Victoria, birds introduced from other countries, 

 the starling and the sparrow, and other species, are the cause of 

 valuable insect -eating birds, as kingfishers, diamond birds, tree creepers, 

 and tree swallows, being driven out of their nesting places in tree 

 hollows; and it will not be very long before these useful birds disapjiear 

 right out of the State. 



Tlie insect pests of our orcliards and gardens may be divided into 

 two classes, viz., chewing insects and suctorial insects. The former 



