EXTERMINATING NOXIOUS INSECTS. 231 



swallows to fly down to our barn-lamp when we have been 

 about the out-buildings. This fact will often enable po- 

 mologists to destroy insect enemies by thousands simply 

 by setting a lighted lamp or candle within a glass jar, or 

 beneath a bell-glass, so as to attract millers to the light. 

 But all such glasses must be open both at the bottom and 

 top, as a short piece of lighted candle let down to the bot- 

 tom of a tight glass jar will burn only for a few minutes. 

 The burning wick must be supplied with fresh air. A com- 

 mon barn-lamp, set in the centre of a large milk-pan con- 

 taining a quart or more of water, sweetened thoroughly 

 with cheap molasses, will often constitute a trap that will 

 attract and decoy into the sweet liquid a large number of 

 millers, which would scatter an untold number of eggs, ev- 

 ery one of which would produce a worm or caterpillar that 

 would destroy more or less fruit. It has been frequently 

 recommended to kindle small fires in different parts of an 

 orchard with shavings or straw. In many instances, mil- 

 lers will fly directly into the burning fire, and be destroyed 

 at once by the flames. (See page 268.) 



Some writers have recommended oil instead of sweetened 

 water. Others have suggested that the bell-glass or globe 

 of the burning lamp be smeared with oil or molasses, so 

 that the nocturnal invaders may stick fast in the glutinous 

 material when they fly near the light. Downing alludes 

 to an experiment of the kind in France, during which it 

 was stated that 30,000,000 millers were destroyed in one 

 vineyard. As this is a large number, we must make prop- 

 er allowance for the great distance this story has travelled. 

 Doubtless, during such a long and perilous journey, as 

 many as two right-hand ciphers have been accumulated. 

 Nevertheless, we can recommend this mode of destroying 

 millers in orchards and vineyards ; and melon-bugs may be 

 exterminated, not in myriads, as Downing affirms, but in 



