INSECTS. 



INSECTS. 



keep it drythe ants will go under it ; after a 

 time lift it up quickly, and dip it into a pail of 

 water. While treating of insects, I may inci- 

 dentally allude to worms and slugs, or naked 

 snails. For the destruction of slugs, warm in 

 an oven, or before the fire, a quantity of cab- 

 bage leaves, until they are soft, then rub them 

 with unsalted butter, or any kind of fresh drip- 

 ping, and lay them in the places infested by 

 slugs. In a few hours the leaves will be 

 found covered with snails and slugs. Wood- 

 lice are destroyed in the same way. For field 

 operations, perhaps, the best means of destroy- 

 ing slugs and worms is common salt, an agent 

 too little known, for this purpose, yet its powers 

 are undoubted. 



No person has employed common salt for 

 the purpose of destroying worms to a greater 

 extent than Jacob Busk, Esq., of Ponsbourn 

 Park, in Hertfordshire. His valuable experi- 

 ments have extended over some hundreds of 

 acres of wheat. To use his own words, "In 

 every situation, and at every time, the effect 

 appeared equally beneficial." The quantity 

 per acre, "about four or five bushels sown 

 out of a common seed-shuttle." The period, 

 "In the evening." The effect, "In the morn- 

 ing each throw may be distinguished by the 

 quantity of slime and the number of dead slugs 

 lying on the ground. In some fields it has cer- 

 tainly been the means of preventing the de- 

 struction of the whole crop." Six bushels of 

 salt per acre was applied by hand, in April, 

 1828, to a field of oats attacked by the slugs 

 and worms, and the crop was completely saved 

 by this application, although an adjoining field, 

 not saltetl, was entirely destroyed by this sort 

 of vermin. 



Salt, too, is a complete preventive of the 

 ravages of the weevil in grain. It has been 

 successfully employed in the proportion of a 

 pint of salt to a barrel of wheat. I learn from 

 an American merchant, that wheat placed in 

 old salt barrels is never attacked by these de- 

 structive insects. Six or eight pounds of salt 

 sprinkled over 100 sheaves in stacking, pro- 

 duces exactly the same effect. 



The Eriosoma lanigera upon apple trees, and 

 several other insects (See AMERICAN BLIGHT), 

 may be killed by clay and water, made as thin 

 as whitewash, and mixing with every b gallons 

 of it 2 Ibs. of cream of tartar, 1 Ib. of soft soap, 

 and half a peck of quicklime. "When you 

 think," says Mr. Loudon, "that the weather is 

 likely to continue dry for some time, take a 

 bucketful of this mixture, and with a large 

 brush wash over the bark of the trees, wher- 

 ever you think it has been infected with the 

 bug. A man will dress a number of trees over 

 in a few days with a whitewash brush and this 

 liquid ; it is only necessary to be careful to do 

 it in dry weather, so that the rain may not 

 wash over the mixture for some time. The 

 clay and water alone are sometimes effectual. 

 Flies and wasps. A mixture of pepper, sugar, 

 and water will speedily attract and destroy 

 them. (Gard. Mag. No. 37 ; Quart. Journ. dgr. 

 vol. iii. p. 1071.) 



Moss and Insects. Mr. Thomas recommends 

 that the trees infected should be sprinkled J 

 with a fine powder in March, and again in Oc- 1 

 84 



tober, on a foggy day when the trees are damp 

 but not dripping, and I have no doubt of its 

 efficacy. It is composed as follows : slack five 

 bushels of lime, hot from the kiln, with com- 

 mon salt and water (say one Ib. of salt to each 

 gallon of water). When the lime has fallen to 

 a fine powder, add by small quantities at a 

 time a bushel of soot, stirring it until com- 

 pletely incorporated. Mr. Thomas has found 

 that one man can dust over with the powder fifty 

 trees in a day, and that the moss in the turf 

 under fruit trees thus treated is also completely 

 destroyed by the application. (Trans. Soc. Arts.) 

 Worms in grass plats may be readily destroyed 

 by copiously watering the turf with lime-water 

 (hatf a pound of the hottest quick-lime well 

 stirred in each gallon of water), or by sprin- 

 kling common salt (20 bushels per acre) over 

 it, or by strewing it on gravel walks in rather 

 large proportions. Lime is recommended for 

 the destruction of the worm which sometimes 

 injures young larch plantations; coal-tar and 

 tar water to preserve hop poles and other 

 wood from the ravages of insects. The cater- 

 pillars on cabbages may be readily destroyed 

 by sprinkling them with finely powdered lime ; 

 and when some years since a black caterpillar 

 attacked very generally and extensively the 

 turnips, in some instances they were very suc- 

 cessfully destroyed by turning into the fields 

 considerable numbers of common ducks. 

 Heavy rolling, especially during the night, is 

 in many cases destructive of slugs; and it is 

 certain that, by occasional material variations 

 in the rotation of crops (see ROTATION* or 

 CROPS), the number of predatory insects may 

 be very considerably reduced in cultivated 

 soils by depriving the larvae of their particular 

 and essential food. 



Mr. Knight recommends the use of carbonate 

 of ammonia for the destruction of the insects 

 upon the pine and other plants. Mr. Baldwin, 

 in effect, does the same, when he commends 

 the use of the steam from hot fermenting horse 

 dung. Mr. Robertson found soot (which con- 

 tains ammonia), when diffused in water, to be 

 an excellent application. When speaking of 

 the use of fermenting horse dung in the de- 

 struction of insects, Mr. Knight remarked, "I 

 conclude the destructive agent in this case is 

 ammoniacal gas, which Sir Humphry Davy 

 informed me ne had found to be instantly fatal 

 to every species of insect; and, if so, this 

 might be obtained at a small expense by pour- 

 ing a solution of crude muriate of ammonia 

 upon quicklime ; the stable or cow-house would 

 afford an equally efficient, though less delicate 

 fluid. The ammoniacal gas might, I conceive, 

 be impelled by means of a pair of bellows 

 amongst the leaves of the infected plants, in 

 sufficient quantity to destroy animal without 

 injuring vegetable life." Ammonia seems pe- 

 culiarly distasteful to insects. Carbonate of 

 ammonia is often successfully placed in meat- 

 safes to prevent the attacks oif flies. 



IV. The natural Enemies of Insects. Amongst 

 the enemies by which insects are kept in 

 check, may be numbered long-continued rains, 

 late frosts, inundations, storms ; and, among 

 the animals, bats, mice, moles, squirrels, foxes, 

 &c. Birds devour them by myriads; the green- 

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