PKEVENTIVES OF INSECT DEPUEDATIONS. 65 



Tobacco dust for protectiug such large articles as those referred to, 

 and carpets rolled up during the summer.* 



Sprinkling powdered borax near the base-board or wainscoting of 

 basements, to repel the cockroach and the Croton-bug. 



Waslung, with strong alum water shelves and other infested places; 

 for the above insects. 



Drawing a broad line of chalk about the border of a shelf or around 

 dishes upon it, for the red ant. Pennyroyal, and sassafras bark and 

 roots, are also said to repel it. 



Imbedding the lid of stone jars of pickled fruit in paper charged 

 with tar-water or carbolic acid ; for the pickled-fruit fly {Drosophila 

 ampelophila). 



Pinning naphthaline, prepared in cones for the purpose, by C A. 

 Blake, of Philadelphia, in cases and drawers of insect collections ; for 

 the museum pest {Anthrenus varius) and the miwatQ Psocidce{Psocus 

 domesticus and Atropos divinatorius, Fabr. ).f 



Washing with a camel's- hair brush the dried plants in a herbarium 

 with a preparation consisting of corrosive sublimate, four drams, sul- 

 phuric ether, three ounces, mixed; to which add two ounces of spirits 

 turpentine and three ounces of alcohol. (Used in the N. Y. State 

 Collection.];) 



Showering plum trees with a solution of putrid whale-oil after each 

 rain, commencing with the falling of the blossoms, has pi'otected from 

 the curculio. {Country Gentle man, xli, p. 310.) 



Soaking the seeds of turnips and onions in spirits of turpentine to 

 prevent the attack of the larvae of the xA.nthomyian flies, has been re- 

 commended and may be tried, but it is of doubtful utility. 



Manuring with spent hops has been found of service in cabbage- 

 growing districts as a preventive against the attacks of the cabbage-gall 

 weevil and other pernicious insects. {Manual Inj. Ins., p. 44.) 



Tansy tea ; made strong by boiling the leaves in sufficient water to 

 cover them, and applied through the rose of a sprinkling pot, has pro- 

 tected bearing cucumber vines from the flea-beetle {Epitrix cucumeris 

 Harris), and cabbages from caterpillars.§ 



*B..Payn & Son, Tobacconists of this city, inform me tliat tlieirsalos of this material to 

 dry-goods tfnorchants, for the protection of woolen fabrics, to furriers, to liverv-men for 

 protection of carriage robes, to gardeners for destroying insects, and to others for house- 

 hold uses, etc., have amounted to four and five tons "per annum. 



tif it is desired to keep the preparation on hand, the State Botanist suggests that the 

 ether might be omitted without materially impairing its cflicacy. 



JThis preparation is said to be injurious to collections of Lepidoptera, producing greas- 

 ing etc. (See American NataralUt, xvi, 1882, p. 410.) 



§A correspondent of the Country Gentleman states that he has saved his plants for two 

 years by steeping tansy and pouring it upon them after they began to head, only two 

 applications proving to be necessary. When the moths (Pliisia brassic(By> commenced de- 

 positmg their eggs, he gave the plants a dose every two weeks, and no injury bv cater- 

 pillars was subsequently seen. 



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