INJURIOUS INSECTS. 147 



herbage, fresh supplies of the pests may be constantly on hand, 

 unless such plants as the chrysanthemums are well isolated. 



A large net made of fine mesh mosquito netting, drawn quickly 

 around and among tlie plants, will capture great numbers of the 

 winged insects. If chrysanthemums were protected b}' gauze 

 covered frames, there should be no trouble from the pests. 



Scale Insects and Mealy Bugs obtain their food by sucking the 

 sap of plants through beaks, in the same manner as the Aphides 

 and the true bugs. The different species vary so much in habit 

 that no rule is applicable to many of them together. From 

 delicate plants, and when the scales are mature, it is often 

 necessary to remove the pest by hand. On strong plants, 

 especially woody species, the stems and branches may be washed 

 with whale oil soap or kerosene emulsion with good etf ect. In this 

 work a knowledge of the habits of the species to be combatted 

 will prove of the greatest advantage. For instance, we find that 

 the Oyster-shell Bark-louse {MyUlaspis pomoru7n), of the apple 

 and other fruit trees, hatches from the egg and begins life as a 

 little, active, light-colored louse, in the latter part of Maj^ or in 

 June, and this is by far the best time to attack it. At this time 

 sprayings of ordinary kerosene emulsion would destroy every 

 louse with which it came in contact. Later, the insects become 

 fixed on the bark, from which they never afterwards move, and as 

 the season advances they become protected by the well-known 

 scaly covering, which offers a considerable resistance to insecti- 

 cides. 



Nuthatches, chickadees, woodpeckers of several species, and 

 some other birds, do a vast amount of little appreciated benefit 

 by clearing off the scale insects which infest the trunks and 

 branches of trees and shrubs. I have often watched winter birds 

 at this work. 



An inconspicuous insect, but one which often gives a great deal 

 of ti'ouble to gardeners, is Fuller's Rose Beetle {Aramigus Fulleri), 

 a small beetle of the curculio family. The principal damage is 

 done in its larval stages, when the little white grubs live in the 

 soil and feed upon the roots of many kinds of plants. Cultivators 

 in Boston and vicinity have frequently called my attention to this 

 troublesome pest. Sometimes the roots have been eaten from 

 whole beds of primroses in the open air ; in winter the enemy may 

 be damaging the roots of roses in the greenhouse. The beetle is 

 so much like the average soil in color, that it generally escapes 



