THE ORANGE AND FIG TREE BORER. 91 



or spraying occasionally with some deterrent as kerosene 

 emulsion, &c. may have a good effect in preventing 

 the female from commencing its boring operations. 

 Should, however, the trouble have commenced, as soon 

 as the danger is observed, the tree, or such parts of it as 

 are badly affected, should be at once grubbed out and 

 burned, special care being taken that none of the larvse 

 or perfect insects escape. The next best thing to be 

 done supposing the trees to be only slightly affected 

 is to apply, by means of a good spray pump, a strong 

 solution of kerosene emulsion, say one in eight or ten ; 

 but, as the holes made by the borer are placed 

 horizontally, the liquid must be used with considerable 

 force, so that it may be driven horizontally into the 

 holes, when not only will the grubs and beetles be 

 destroyed, but the bark will be rendered for a time at 

 least obnoxious to this and other insects, and would in 

 all probability be the means of preventing other insects 

 from depositing their eggs, or otherwise working on or 

 in the bark of the tree. Remove by scraping all loose 

 bark, as the less shelter for the beetles, the less danger 

 there will be of attack, and the easier it will be to detect 

 any inroads made by borers or other noxious insects. 



As this is another instance of an indigenous insect 

 adapting inself to imported fruit trees, it behoves fruit 

 growers to pay special attention to the immediate 

 destruction of all badly-infested native timbers, as the 

 latter may prove to be a practically unlimited source of 

 trouble to those whose orchards happen to be in the 

 vicinity of forests or timbered country in general. 



Stopping the holes with wire dipped in either carbolic 

 acid or bisulphide of carbon has been suggested ; and if 

 the wire is well stuck into the holes, and the bottom of 

 the hole probed as far as possible, it is a good plan, as I 

 have frequently proved. 



The application of sulphur, bisulphide of carbon, 

 and other fumes, by means of steam power, providing 

 that a machine for generating and distributing the 



