COMMON PESTS 105 



After housing in the autumn the plants will stand a 

 fair amount of fumigation and it is wise to fumigate them 

 at least twice, some few days after they are taken indoors, 

 thus ensuring them against an attack of fly during the 

 period of flowering, though with the large exhibition flowers 

 it should be done before the blooms have opened to any 

 appreciable extent. 



Thrips. During hot and dry weather in the summer 

 the plants may get an attack of yellow thrip, and if the 

 points of the shoots become stunted without any apparent 

 cause, the cultivator may suspect the presence of this pest 

 and provide at once for spraying the plants as for aphides, 

 repeating the spraying at least twice on alternate evenings, 

 thus making sure of getting rid of this small but injurious 

 pest. 



If thrips are present in considerable numbers the foliage 

 soon appears weakly, and if the insects get into the large 

 flower buds they often spoil the flower, this being much 

 more noticeable in the dark varieties. 



Earwigs. These are often a great source of trouble. 

 In the case of the bush varieties their ravages are not so 

 noticeable, but when growing for exhibition they do a 

 deal of damage, so steps must be taken to capture them 

 almost as soon as the plants are placed in their summer 

 quarters, and nothing is better for the purpose than 

 hollow pieces of bamboo resting against the stem of the 

 plant. These act as traps, and if the traps are blown out 

 regularly and the earwigs killed, the pest may be kept 

 under and no great amount of damage will result. 



" Rust " (Puccinia Hieracei). This fungous pest 

 threatened at one time to prove a very great drawback to 

 the cultivation of the Chrysanthemum, but it has not been 



