SOURCE OF INFESTATION 9 



where the manure was obtained almost entirely from the 

 West Coast which was not infected. In spite of this ini- 

 probabilit}'^, it was decided to make a thorough investigation 

 of suspected sources of infection in Mysore. In the earlier 

 stages of the outbreak when no more than half a dozen 

 estates had been infected, and there was reasonable hope 

 of stamping it out entirely from the infested blocks or 

 patches, it was all-important that the effect of these 

 measures should not be neutralised by allowing the sources 

 of infection to continue. If, as appeared certain. Banga- 

 lore was the original source of infection, the possibility 

 was not excluded of the infection of the " low country " 

 from the same source and of this latter acting as a secondary 

 and more immediate centre of distribution of the pest. A 

 thorough inspection was therefore made of all the places 

 (1) where carting of manure begins, (2) where carts halt 

 on their way to coffee estates and (3) from which green 

 fodder is obtained if the supply is exhausted on the way. 

 A list of the scale insects obtained from the places visited 

 will be found in Appendix I. As is clear from the table, 

 no green bug was obtained anywhere ; on the other hand, 

 the mealy bug, which is often mistaken for green bug, was 

 found in twenty places. During the writing of this bulle- 

 tin (July, 1917) green bug has been found in two places 

 in a locality previously inspected. This is probably due to 

 a subsequent infection and does not vitiate the conclusions 

 already reached. 



Soon after this exhaustive search for green bug 

 along the roads leading from the " low country " to the 

 estates was over, in October 1913, a thorough inspection 

 was made of the country within a radius of three to four 

 miles of each of the estates known to be infected. The 

 " hitlus "^ and gardens in nearly ninety villages were gone 

 over carefully but only in five of these was the bug 

 detected. These were close to or adjoining the larger 

 infested estates and were almost certainly infected from 

 them. In nearly all of the five, mealy and brown bugs 

 were also found in more or less abundance. 



The investigation of the sources of infection was now 

 stopped. The inspection showed that the scale had 

 spread over too wide an area to render the discovery of 



' " Hitlus " are small plots of a few hundred trees usually in the 

 back yards of houses for the most part neglected save for picking benies 

 once a vear. , 



