SPRAYING 107 



whole of the fruit-growing districts of our 

 country. Being small it never attracted much 

 attention until the trees on which it was feast- 

 ing began to die. They continued to die with 

 very considerable regularity for some years and 

 many orchards were wiped out of existence by 

 the pest. It was distributed by the growers of 

 nursery stock and is still conveyed from place 

 to place by that method in spite of our nation- 

 wide inspection service. Where it is once es- 

 tablished in the orchards it is more or less scat- 

 tered by the birds upon whose legs the insects 

 will crawl and be transported to new feeding 

 grounds. Only the very young insects have 

 this power of moving about, however, for after 

 they once attach themselves to their food plant 

 they ''stay put" until they die, or in the case 

 of the male, until the breeding season. At this 

 time the male only is set free and emerges with 

 his delicate wings to fly about for a brief time 

 before he too passes away. The young scales 

 are born alive and appear as tiny sulphur-yel- 

 low mites actively crawling about over the 

 twigs and branches on which their parent is at- 

 tached. When they locate a good " claim" they 

 promptly settle down, start drilling their little 

 wells and become permanent residents in that 

 place. Soon after attaching themselves they 

 develop thin, hard round shells or scales over 

 their bodies, and it is this characteristic which 



