INSECTS, ETC. J 71 



(ill summer) the Hies appear, aiid begin to lay another 

 lot of eggs, so that bulbs previously uninjured are exposed 

 to an attack. The grubs are white, legless, half an inch 

 long, with a pointed head and a broad tail. 



Remedies. — All the plants affected should be carefullj' 

 lifted with a trowel and burnt. Immediately each infested 

 plant is dug up pour a little paraffin in the hole to kill any 

 maggots that may have escaped from the bulbs. Unless 

 this precaution be taken the maggots will speedily find 

 their way to the next healthy plant. Do not grow onions 

 on infested ground for a season. Other preventive mea- 

 sures are sulphur — half an ounce to the yard — sown along 

 the drills at the time of sowing the seed ; or salt and soot 

 — a peck of each mixed to a bed 30ft. by 6ft. — sown broad- 

 cast a day or two before sowing the seed, supplemented 

 by light sprinklings — quarter-peck — at intervals of three 

 weeks, choosing showery weather, if possible. Undoubt- 

 edly, the best of all remedies is to dress the ground in 

 autumn, or before sowing, with one of the soil fumigants 

 advised for Millepedes. 



Pea and Bean Thrips. — Although but little is 

 known about the various species of Thrips, it is very evi- 

 dent that considerable damage results among crops and 

 greenhouse plants by their depredations. In vegetable 

 gardens onions, cabbages, runner beans, peas, and pota- 

 toes are all subject to the attacks of the various Thrips, 

 whilst under glass we find a common example in the 

 Black Fly, so frequent on cinerarias. It is often found 

 iliat the peas grow away well, and produce abundance 

 of vigorous haulm and plentiful racemes of flower buds; 

 but, instead of these opening into blossom, they shrivel 

 up, become a twisted, shapeless bundle of petals, and 

 then fall off, leaving nothing but the short petiole where 

 a young pod should be. This is due to the Thrips larvge, 

 and also to the adult insects eating the pistil, stamens, 

 and pollen within the unopened blossom, thus preventing 

 the food from forminof. 



