250 GARDEN FOES. 



safe remedies. To prevent ants ascending the stems of 

 plants tie a piece of cotton wool, or simply make a chalk 

 line round; ants will not pass over chalk. Ants may also 

 be trapped by laying marrow bones or pieces of hollow 

 cane about. Examine these daily, and if an}^ ants are 

 found in or on them, dip in boiling wat-er. Pieces of 

 sponge saturated with treacle will attract ants, and so will 

 sheets of paper smeared with treacle. Carbolic acid 

 diluted with ten times, and paraffin with six times, its 

 bulk of water poured into the haunts of ants will drive 

 them away, but this remedy must not be adopted in close 

 contiguity to the roots of plants, otherwise it will kill 

 them. If the nest can be found, make a hole 6in. deep, 

 pour in a tablespoonful of disulphide of carbon, and close 

 the hole with soil. The latter is inflammable, so do not 

 use it near a light. 



Aphides. — These are well-known j^ests, under the 

 common name of Greenflies. There are about a dozen 

 species that infest trees, plants, fruits, and vegetables, 

 but the only one that concerns us here as infesting green- 

 house plants is the Common Greenfly (Eophalosiphon 

 Dianthi), and the Black Aphis (Aphis fabae), which at- 

 tacks chrysanthemums. Although commonly called 

 Greenflies, they are not, as their name would imply, always 

 green in colour. It is only when feeding on green leaves 

 or shoots that their bodies are green; on dark-coloured 

 shoots they are usually brownish, or reddish, or dark. 

 They have brown antennae, transparent iridescent wings, 

 soft bodies, and long legs, and are furnished with a beak 

 with which they penetrate the epidermis of the leaf or the 

 rim of the shoots and suck the juices of the plant. Aphides 

 :are possessed of marvellous fecundity. In the autumn 

 eggs are laid by oviparous females, which lay dormant 

 until spring; then they hatch into flies, which in their turn 

 lay eggs also. From the latter are hatched a progeny 

 possessing viviparous habits; and henceforth until the 

 autumn generation after generation of Aphides are born 



