ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND PACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 377 



■can overcome. The cotton caterpillar is 

 also destroyed by a small yellow and 

 black banded ichneumon fly, which de- 

 posits its eggs in the worm. This egg 

 hatching produces a footless grub, which 

 feeds in the oody of the caterpillar, at 

 first avoiding all the vital parts and de- 

 vouring merely the fatty matter, leaving 

 the larva with strength to spin its cocoon 

 and change into the chrysalis, with its 

 internal foe still in its body. The grub 

 then, after devouring the remainder of 

 interior, changes into a pupa, and finally 

 emerges from the dried chrysalis' skin as 

 •a full-formed four-winged fly, somewhat 

 resembling a very diminutive wasp. 



PEAR SLUG. — The pear slug, a brown- 

 ish-green, slimy slug, feeding upon the 

 leaves of the pear tree, deposits its eggs 

 singly in June, in incisions made by the 

 piercer of the female under the skin of 

 the leaf. The larvae, hatching, eat the 

 substance of the leaf, leaving the veins 

 and under skin untouched. The pupa is 

 formed in oblong oval cavities under 

 ground. The insect appears in about 

 fifteen days after the slug has gone into 

 the ground, in June and August, and lays 

 its eggs for the second crop, which go in- 

 to the ground in September and October, 

 and remain until the following spring, 

 when the perfect flies come out to lay 

 their eggs on the foliage. Mr. Saun- 

 ders, of Canada, states that this insect 

 is readily destroyed by dusting the tree 

 with air-slacked lime. Coal oil will in- 

 jure the trees, and road-dust is of little 

 value when dusted over the trees. For 

 another insect of the same genus, Har- 

 ris recommends syringing with strong 

 soap-suds. The Rose Slug and other in- 

 jurious slug worms can be destroyed by 

 dusting the plants with the powdered hel- 

 lebore, or syringing with a strong decoc- 

 tion of the same root. 



PLANT LICE.=~To destroy common 

 plant lice [Amp hides) and other insects in 

 the greenhouse and garden, the following 

 remedy has been recommended by M. 

 Cloetz, of the Jardin des Plantes, in 

 Paris : Three and one-half ounces quassia 

 chips, five drachms of stavesacre seeds, 

 powdered and placed in seven pints of 

 water, and boiled until reduced to five 

 pints. 



Dr. Hull recommends dusting slacked 

 lime on the trees or bushes when the 



foliage is wet ; syringing with soap-suds 

 or tobacco-water, or a strong decoction 

 of quassia with soap-suds; also, a weak 

 solution of chloride of lime is said by 

 Mr. Andrews to preserve plants from 

 insects if sprinkled over them. The fol- 

 lowing recipe is also highly recommended 

 in an English horticultural journal as 

 being almost infallible " for mildew, scale, 

 mealy bug, red spider, and thrips : " Two 

 ounces flour of sulphur worked into a 

 paste with water, two ounces washing 

 soda, one-half ounce common shag to- 

 bacco, and a piece of quicklime about 

 the size of a duck's egg. Pour them all 

 into a saucepan with one gallon of water, 

 boil and stir for a quarter of an hour, and 

 let the whole settle until it becomes cold 

 and clear. It should then be poured off, 

 leaving the sediment. In using it, add 

 water according to the strength or sub- 

 stance of the foliage. It will keep good 

 for a long time if kept closed. 



CABBAG3 BUG.— The harlequin cab- 

 bage-bug, which appeared in 187 1, has 

 been much complained of the past year. 

 The perfect insect hybernates in sheltered 

 places, and the female deposits her eggs 

 in March and April, in two rows, cemented 

 together, mostly on the under-side of the 

 leaf, and generally ten to twelve in num- 

 ber. In about six days the first broods 

 make their appearance, the young larvae* 

 resembling the perfect insect, with the 

 exception of being wingless. About six- 

 teen to eighteen days elapse from the 

 deposition of the eggs to the development 

 of the perfect insect. A second brood 

 appears in July, which probably hyber- 

 nates (in North Carolina) in sheltered 

 places. It is said that fowls and birds 

 will not eat them, and the only remedy 

 recommended is handpicking, and as they 

 hybernate in the perfect state beneath 

 bark, under brush heaps or stones, like 

 the cotton red-bug, it would be well in 

 winter to search for them in such situa- 

 tions, and in spring to destroy them on 

 their first appearance upon the plants, 

 before they have had time to deposit 

 their eggs ; or if little heaps of rotting 

 vegetables were left as places of shelter, 

 here and there during the winter, so that 

 they might be induced to hybernate 

 under them, they might readily be de- 

 stroyed in spring by burning straw over 

 the heaps. 



