INSECTS AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM 29 



with a most effective weapon aj^ainst the aphis. It 

 can be syringed over infested plants, or they can be 

 dipped in it. This is the best way in which to make 

 use of the tobacco principle in fighting insects, but it 

 is open to the objection of being unpleasantly odorifer- 

 ous, and many women tell me they cannot make 

 use of it. 



I have come to depend entirely on a homemade 

 insecticide in fighting the aphis. I shave a quarter of 

 a pound of the ordinary Ivory soap in use in most 

 households, or readily obtainable anywhere, into thin 

 pieces. These I cover with water and set on the stove 

 to melt. When liquid, I add to a pailful of water. Into 

 this I dip my plants. If they are large ones, I prepare 

 a larger amount of soap and water, keeping to the 

 proportions named above, and use it in a tub sufficiently 

 large to accommodate my plants. I find this bath most 

 effective. Aphides are killed and no plant is ever 

 injured. It costs but little, is pleasant to prepare and 

 handle and is always at hand. A good many profes- 

 sional florists to whom I have recommended it tell me 

 that they have used it with unvarying success, and 

 prefer it to anything else they have tried in fighting the 

 aphis. This insecticide is also effective against the 

 thrip and the mealy bug. 



One of the most destructive insects with which 

 the owners of plants have to measure weapons is the 

 red spider. He does his most effective work in rooms 

 where the air is hot and dry. He is a tiny creature, 

 and often his presence is unsuspected. The leaves of 

 the plants begin to turn yellow, and a sickly look per- 

 vades the collection. The real cause of the trouble is 

 not understood until you happen to see, on the under- 

 side of a leaf, a little web. Examine it closely and 

 you will see little atoms looking more like a "frain of 

 cayenne pepper than anything else. Watch them 



