11 



the insecticide where it will do good. " Rule of thumb ' 



spraying is likely to be wasteful and inefficient. 



In concluding these notes on spraying, reference should be 

 made to dusting, in which the insecticide is applied as .a dust 

 instead of as a fluid, and also to the application of insecticides 

 by hand. As regards dusting, this treatment has made some 

 progress in the United States of America, but it has not clearly 

 shown its superiority over liquid spraying. In certain cases 

 (e.g., Black Currant Mite and Pear Slug Worm) good results 

 have been claimed in Britain, and where a grower has a dusting 

 machine for use in connection with fungus pests, the possibility 

 of attacking insects with the same methods should be kept in 

 mind. 



Hand application of insecticides (except in greenhouses and 

 very small gardens) is practically limited to the destruction of 

 Woolly Aphis on apples (Leaflet No. 34), where the insecticide 

 is painted on to the colonies of the pest, but it may also be 

 useful where " bendable " twigs attacked at the growing point 

 can be bent over and dipped in a vessel of insecticide. Goose- 

 berries attacked by Aphides are sometimes treated in this way. 



Oilier Direct Measures. In addition to spraying there are 

 certain other direct measures for pest control, (a) In small 

 gardens, and sometimes even in commercial orchards, " hand 

 picking " may be of great use if the owner is sharp enough 

 to detect the pest when it is just beginning to obtain a foot- 

 hold. Hand-picking may consist in the removal by hand of 

 the insects or their eggs as for instance the nests of the 

 Lackey Moth caterpillars or more usually it takes the form of 

 collecting attacked leaves and fruit in or on which the pest 

 as still living. Instances of these are Apple Sawfiy in the 

 fruits, Pear Leaf Blister Mite in the leaves, or Apple Blossom 

 Weevil in the closed " capped " blossom. In the case of single 

 trees attacked by a pest not controllable by spraying hand- 

 picking is always worth a trial as it may save the whole 

 orchard. 



(b) Next to hand-picking may be mentioned the running 

 of poultry in orchards (chiefly of course those containing 

 standard or half -standard trees). Fowls are extraordinarily 

 efficient insect hunters, and if not too few in number can be 

 relied upon to destroy any pest which passes a part of its 

 life in the soil. 



(c) Where a pest has to crawl up or down a tree trunk, 

 banding may be employed. This consists in placing round the 

 trunk a band of sticky material to catch any insects which try 

 to pass over it (Leaflet No. 4, Winter Moths), while another 

 form of banding consists in placing round the trunks bands 

 of hay or sacking, &c., in which the pests find suitable quarters 

 to spend the winter or the chrysalis stage (Leaflet No. 30, 

 Codling Moth). 



