Fighting Pests with Insect Allies 



to lack of food, kept alive some colonies of the 

 beneficial beetle, and specimens were sent to 

 Portugal which reached there alive and flour- 

 ishing. They were tended for a short time, 

 and then liberated in the orange groves, with 

 precisely the same result as in California. In 

 a few months the scale insects were almost 

 entirely destroyed, and the Portuguese or. 

 growers saved from enormous loss. 



This good result in Portugal was not ac- 

 complished without opposition. It was tried 

 experimentally at the advice of the writer, 

 and in the face of great incredulity on the part 

 of certain Portuguese newspapers and of some 

 officials. By many prominent persons the 

 account published of the work of the insect 

 in the United States was considered as un- 

 trustworthy, and simply another instance of 

 American boasting. But the opposition 

 was overruled, and the triumphant result 

 silenced all opposition. It is safe to say that 

 the general opinion among Portuguese orange- 

 growers to-day is very favourable to American 

 enterprise and practical scientific acumen. 



The Vedalia was earlier sent to the j 

 in Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt, where a similar 

 scale was damaging the tig trees and other 

 valuable plants, and the result was again the 

 same, the injurious insects were destroyed. 

 This was achieved only after extensive cor- 

 respondence and several failures. The active 

 agent in Alexandria was Rear Admiral I 

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