88 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



flower-buds, very often rendering the first opening flowers 

 useless. Spraying with quassia extract is effectual for plants 

 outside, while, for plants under glass, vaporising is most 

 valuable, and the fumigation may be repeated a second or 

 a third time, at intervals of three or four days. 



Earwigs are in some seasons a nuisance, attacking and 

 eating the young foliage ; but they are most destructive to 

 the flowers, concealing themselves at the base of the petals, 

 upon which they feed. An excellent trap consists of a 

 hollow bamboo, thrust in the soil beside the plant ; the 

 earwigs will secrete themselves in this at night, where they 

 can be captured and killed by means of a wire pushed down 

 the hollow of the bamboo. The old-fashioned flower-pot 

 trap, filled with dry hay or moss, is a simple and good way 

 of catching them. An occasional examination with a lan- 

 tern at night, will reveal earwigs and other nocturnal visitors, 

 including snails and weevils, when they may be destroyed. 



Wireworm is more to be dreaded by the Carnation- 

 grower than any other pest ; it causes many Carnations 

 to die amongst those planted out under glass and in the 

 open. While some soils are quite free of the pest, others 

 are badly infested with it, and these are highly dangerous 

 soils to use at any price, unless thoroughly sterilised by 

 roasting, as advised under " Potting." Although roasting is 

 recommended for indoor plants, care must be taken that the 

 soil is not allowed to burn. This may be prevented by con- 

 tinually stirring and turning it during the process of roasting. 

 Land intended for Carnation planting, when worked in the 

 autumn as previously advised, if wireworm is present in it, 

 may have gas-lime sprinkled thickly upon it after digging ; 

 the winter rains washing the properties of the lime into the 



