Fighting Pests with Insect Allies 



of Italy, and Dr. Rch, of Germany, will attempt 

 the introduction into Europe of some of the 

 parasites of injurious insects which occur in 

 the United States, and particularly those of 

 the woolly root-louse of the apple, known in 

 Europe as the "American blight" — one of the 

 few injurious insects which probably went to 

 Europe from this country, and which in the 

 United States is not so injurious as it is in 

 Europe. 



It is a curious fact, by the way, that while 

 we have had most of our Aery injurious insects 

 from Europe, American insects, when acciden- 

 tally introduced into Europe, do not seem to 

 thrive. The insect just mentioned, and the 

 famous grape-vine Phylloxera, a creature which 

 caused France a greater economic loss than the 

 enormous indemnity which she had to pay to 

 Germany after the Franco-Prussian War, are 

 practically the only American insects with 

 which we have been able to repay Europe for 

 the insects which she has sent us. Climatic 

 differences, no doubt, account for this strange 

 fact, and our longer and wanner summers are 

 the principal factor. 



It is not alone the parasitic and preda 

 insects which are beneficial. A new industry 

 has been brought into the United States during 

 the past two years by the introduction and 

 acclimatization of the little insect which ferti- 

 lizes the Smyrna fig in Mediterranean countries. 

 The dried-fig industry in this country has never 

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