30 INSECTS WHITE SCALE AND COCKBOACHES. 



the importer will, or at least should, try to destroy every one 

 before he places such plants in the house. In addition to these 

 two, the following insects are too frequently found in Orchid- 

 houses namely, woodliee, thrips, large hlack and small white 

 slugs, red spider, and sometimes, though rarely, the green fly. 

 As such insects when they abound (which they will soon do if 

 neglected), are so injurious to these my favourite plants, I shall 

 lay before my readers the methods I have employed to destroy 

 them. 



WHITE SCALE. This is the most pernicious of all the tribes 

 of insects to Orchids. It first appears like a white speck on the 

 leaves. It grows larger, lays eggs, which when hatched, by some 

 means -which I never could discover, the young creep away and 

 fix themselves in clusters, and there increase again, and so on till 

 the whole plant is covered with them. Feeding upon the leaf, 

 they eventually destroy it, and finally the whole plant. I saw a 

 plant that was much infes'ed with this pest: the gardener 

 washed them over with a weak solution of Grishurst Compound, 

 and it completely killed them. I, however, have destroyed them 

 years before Grishurst was heard of by a mixture of sulphur, 

 Scotch snuff, and pepper in equal parts, dusted over them when 

 steam was in the house. This mixture appeared to stick to 

 them, and its pungent qualities killed them without injuring the 

 leaf. No doubt with great care Grishurst would answer. 



COCKROACHES are the next worst enemy, and are more difficult 

 to come at. They secrete themselves in cracks of the walls, and 

 also amongst the drainage of the pots, or any out-of-the-way 

 corner during the day. I have captured great numbers by 

 inverting a bell-glass and half filling it with sweetened liquor, 

 taking care that a pathway for them was made to enable them 

 to get to the brink of the vessel. Into it they fall, attracted by 

 the sweet fluid ; and there they are prisoners, being unable to 

 travel up the smooth glass : this is an excellent trap for them. 

 They are also trapped by laying slices of Turnips or Potatoes on 

 the surface of the pots, and then taking a light at night, and 



