NOXIOUS INSECTS. 57 



tual mode of preventing their ravages, and of effecting 

 their destruction. A mode has been proposed and tried, 

 which is asserted to have proved completely successful. 

 It consists in simply dredging the leaves with fine black 

 pepper, from a common pepper-box ; the application may 

 be the most effectual, if applied while the dew is on the 

 leaf. Refuse Scotch snuff, finely pulverized, it is asserted, 

 will answer the same effectual purpose. 



DESTRUCTION OF INSECTS BY LAMPS DURING NIGHT. 

 In France the vines are sometimes infested by a moth or in- 

 sect called pyrale, which produces a caterpillar, so injurious 

 to the vines, that they often destroy the entire crop through- 

 out whole districts. The evil was considered of sufficient 

 importance to induce the government of that country to em- 

 ploy Professor Adouin, of Paris, to investigate the subject, 

 and to discover, if possible, the remedy. An account of his 

 researches for the destruction of the pyrale was published 

 in France in 1838, and republished in Loudon's Gardener's 

 Magazine. By that account, it appears that the most ef- 

 fectual method for the destruction of the moth which had 

 been discovered, was to place amongst the vines, in the night 

 time, lamps enclosed in glass, and suspended over saucers of 

 oil. The moths fly to the light from all sides, which they 

 are prevented from touching. By repeatedly striking against 

 the glass, in their vain attempts to get at the light, the 

 moths fall down, and are drowned in the oil. 



One cultivator, in the year 1837, placed in his vineyard, 

 in one night, at the distance of twenty-five feet asunder, 

 each way, two hundred of these lamps, each of which burned 

 two hours, during which time 150 moths, on an average, 

 were taken in each saucer of oil, making in all 30,000 in- 

 sects ; a fifth part of these moths being females, each of 

 which, on an average, would have laid 150 eggs, which, in a 

 few days, would have produced 900,000 caterpillars. During 

 a similar period in one night, on the 7th of August, 180 

 lamps in that same vineyard caught 14,000 insects, three 

 fourths of which were females, which, making allowance of 

 more than one half as lost, would have produced 1 ,080,000 

 caterpillars. Fortunately, the pyrale is not known in Amer- 

 ica ; yet it is considered certain, that the same plan might 

 prove equally successful for the destruction of many other 

 insects of an equally pernicious character. It merits trial 

 for the curculiones. [See APPENDIX, p. 427.] 



