HOW TO DESTROY INSECTS, 11 



operator and pervade the room with the unpleasant 

 odors of the burning weed. After two or three victor- 

 ies, bad as defeats, in campaigning against these ma- 

 rauders in the recesses of a plant-case, I caught a hap- 

 py suggestion about ' touch ' which opened the way to 

 full success by so simple and so beautiful an operation 

 that I now almost sigh for more aphides to conquer. 



" I made some touch-paper by soaking soft, felt-like 

 wrapping-paper, or the thinner sort of blotting-paper, 

 in a solution of saltpetre, and then allowing it to dry. 

 Taking a strip of this, three or four inches wide and 

 twice as long, strewing shreds of tobacco all over it, 

 and rolling it up from one end into the shape of a giant 

 cigar-stump or a tiny roily-poly, I had a quasi-cartridge, 

 one of which proves sufficient to destroy every aphis in 

 a 6 by 3 feet window-case. A bit of wire serves to 

 hold it together and to hang it by. and there is nothing 

 more to do but to touch it with a light and to close the 

 window, laying wet strips of paper on the joint, if nec- 

 essary, to keep all smoke out of the room. The fumes 

 pour incessantly and copiously from the ends of the 

 cylinder, rise to the glass, and then fall cool among the 

 foliage sure asphyxiation to every one of the robbers. 



" This is a peculiarly eligible method for a small case ; 

 but in a large plant-house hot coals can be used in suf- 

 ficient quantity to maintain dense fumes for half an 

 hour, if desired, without risk of burning the plants. < 



" W," 



