Review of Reviews, 29/S/06 



ealifornia and Her Fruit Pests. 



233 



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Bneeding-Cases for the Foe of the Brown Apricot Scale. 



The foe insects are hatched in the cases and crawl into the tubes, in which they are caught and shipped 

 by mail in heavy pasteboird cases to the infected orchards, 



that this was due to an insect, whose sole aim in hfe 

 seemed to be to kill the woim. Its method of at- 

 tack was as follows : — The fly is about five-eighths 

 of an inch in length, and is equipped with a curious 

 stiletto-like sting, about as long as itself. This it 

 drives down into the bark of the tree, where the 

 worm is found, and kills it. 



It was naturally supposed that if this parasite 

 could perform this benevolent work in Spain, it eventually was discovered in Cape Colony, and, 



white, as if covered 

 with snow. In a single 

 year the shipments 

 dropped from 8000 

 carloads to 600. No- 

 thing seemed to be 

 able to stop its ravages. 

 Even taking the trees 

 up and burning them 

 they found was useless, 

 because the pest had 

 spread to all manner of 

 vegetation. Indeed, 

 the orange industry 

 would have been killed 

 had it not been sud- 

 denly discovered that 

 the little ladybird, so 

 familiar an object to 

 Australians, was the 

 natural enemy to the 

 scale. It was instantly 

 introduced, with the 

 result that the balance 

 of Nature was restored, 

 the scale was kept within limits, and the industry 

 brought back to its original proportions. 



It was this that started California in her policy 

 of fighting bugs with bugs, and she is determim^d 

 now to carry out this fighting policy, until all her 

 I<ests are kept under. 



Similarly, the black scale was introduced into 

 California some time ago without its foe. which 



could do it in California ; so the little fly was taken 

 over, reared in large quantities, and distributed here 

 and there throughout that wonderful fruit-producing 

 district, with the finest results. 



It is estimated that the ravages of the codlin moth 



after almost interminable difficulties, transported to 

 the State ; and, although it has onlv been at work 

 for one year, it is estimated that the scale has been 

 reduced by 90 per cent. 



The Californian apricot is subject to a brown 

 have caused a loss of about _;£4,ooo,ooo a year in scale, which not only destroys the fruit and foliage, 

 the United States alone, to say nothing of the large but is likely to ultimately destroy the tree. It has 

 sums of money spent for insecticide, spraying ap- a fondness for plum trees as well. The Commis- 

 paratus, chemicals, and such-like makeshifts. The sioner keeps in hand a supply of a minute brown 

 results are signally successful. Reports have come fly, and, whenever -a report comes to hand from any 

 in saying that the flies were appearing in large part of the State that the scale is appearing, a 

 numbers, the apple crop prospects were never so colony of the insects is despatched by the first mail, 

 bright, the flies bid fair soon to restore the balance It is released in the infected parts, and soon begins 

 of Nature where it has been overturned, and the its destroying work. Of course it may be asked 

 codlin moth will be robbed of its terrors. Millions what there is to prevent the foe of the insect pest 



of pounds will thus be saved for America's fruit 

 industrv. 



It is nearly twenty years since California first 



began this beneficent work. It is. of course, now 



becoming an enemv itself. This is answered by the 

 fact that, in nearly every ca.se, the beneficent insect 

 depends upon the injurious one for its own sus- 

 tenance, and it will not thrive robbed of its prey, 



pretty generally known how that, some years ago, a so that, if the pest wt-re wholly destroyed, its foe 



California nurseryman imported some lemon trees would also disappear. 



from Australia, and laid the foundation of the cot- The Commission is working upon lines which will 



tony cushion-scale, hitherto unknown in that part, ultimately bring under its purview all kinds of pests, 



The scale spread through the orchards like a pes- and every orchardist knows how numerous and dan- 



tilence, sometimes covering the trees till they were gerous they are. It may be easily imagined, con- 



