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The habit of this mite of abandoning its feeding situations in the 
fall to seek hibernating quarters elsewhere leads to its being a house 
pest of no mean importance. This is particularly true wherever it 
has been breeding on clover or other grasses near dwellings. From 
such situations, particularly in the Mississippi Valley States, it often 
swarms into dwellings through doors or windows, its small size ena- 
bling it to penetrate wire screens with ease, to the very considerable dis- 
quietude of the housekeeper. There are only a few records of their 
entering houses in the East, and in the extreme West they seem only 
to have been found on trees. 
REMEDIES AND PREVENTIVES. 
The protection of fruit trees from the attacks of this mite is com- 
paratively easy where the winter is chiefly passed in the egg state, as 
in Colorado and other elevated or cold districts. The experience of 
Mr. C. P. Gillette in Colorado has shown that the eggs may be very 
easily destroyed during the winter by applying kerosene emulsion to 
the trees at about twice the ordinary strength, viz, diluted with five 
parts of water. Spraying at this time is both economical and easy, 
on account of the absence of foliage, and no danger will result to the 
plants from the application. Such an application also in the warmer 
latitudes will be of almost equal value as a protection to fruit trees, 
since it will reach what eggs there may be and also many of the mites 
secreted in the cracks of the bark. 
It is a much more difficult matter to protect clover and other grasses 
from the mites, except as it may be possible to spray in winter the 
trees, fences, etc., on or in which the mites may be hibernating, in the 
vicinity of lawns. 
Their entrance into houses in the fall may be prevented by spraying 
the lower portion of the building, walls, ete., with pure kerosene as 
often as need be and also spraying the lawns immediately about the 
building with kerosene emulsion nine times diluted. The mites may 
be destroyed after they have gained entrance to the house by the free 
use of buhach or pyrethrum powder, burning brimstone, or spraying 
with benzine, taking due precautions with the latter substance in the 
matter of fire. 
C. L. MARLATT, 
First Assistant Entomologist. 
Approved: 
JAMES WILSON, 
Secretary of Agriculture. 
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 19, 1897. 
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