7<> THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



very great numbers." Those unacquainted with this pest will be assisted in its detection 

 on infested foliage by the engraving on the preceding page. 



The size and colour of the mites differ with age and variety. Outdoor are larger than 

 indoor rnites. Of the varieties infesting fruit trees the largest is found on the gooseberry, 

 the smallest on the plum. The colour of the insect is at first very pale, but it soon 

 becomes greyish-green, with brown specks on the sides, rapidly changing to rust-red up 

 to brick-red and vermilion ; body oval, without separation of thorax and abdomen, and 

 near the hinder end is a conical wart from which the thread issues for spinning. The 

 larvae (so called) have six legs, adults eight legs, two pairs turned forwards and two pairs 

 backwards. The female lays eggs beneath or attached to the threads of the web by a 

 glutinous secretion, hatching commencing in about eight days. The mites have two 

 minute eyes, and a beak or sucker, by which they bore into and abstract the juices from 

 the leaves, fruit, and shoots. The injury they occasion is often ruinous. Eed spiders 

 attack the gooseberry in dry springs as early as April, and continue their depredations 

 throughout the summer on various trees, drought and heat favouring their increase. 

 In autumn the mites seek shelter in the cracks, crevices, and rough portions of the bark 

 of infested trees, also in similar places in stakes, trellises, woodwork, and in the soil 

 beneath clods or stones, where they may be found in ruby-red globules hibernating. 

 Treatment, therefore, is the most effective when applied before hibernation. 



Preventives must be such as diminish the risk of attack, and the best possible is 

 cleanly culture. Infested vineries, peacheries, fig and every fruit house should be 

 thoroughly cleansed and the trees washed, as advised for the prevention of mildew, page 

 247, whilst trees that are infested with red spider must be thoroughly cleansed directly 

 the fruit is gathered. Forcible syringings with water effect their removal, but this is 

 not always desirable, as they find fresh quarters in which to deposit eggs. Destruction 

 is preferable, and the following solution may be used on trees, in or out doors, when the 

 foliage is mature and the fruit gathered. 



Soft soap, sulphur, and soda wash : Soft soap, 15 pounds ; dissolve thoroughly by 

 boiling in 30 gallons of water. Caustic soda, \\ pound ; flowers of sulphur, 3 pounds ; boil 

 the soda and sulphur in 1 gallon of water until dissolved, keeping stirred, when it is a 

 dark liquid, or sulphide of soda. Mix the soap solution and the sulphide well together, 

 and allow the mixture to boil gently for half an hour. Add 45 gallons of water and the 

 wash is ready for use. Apply warm (90 to 100) by means of a sprayer, wetting every 

 part of each tree. 



