264 MY GARDEN 



Wire Worms. These are the grubs of a kind of beetle. 

 They are about three-eighths of an inch long and look 

 like a piece of rusty wire. They attack the roots of 

 plants in great numbers and are more in evidence in dry, 

 hot soils. Arsenites sprinkled upon little piles of fresh 

 clover is said to appeal to them. 



Red Spider. This is an infinitesimal but most pestif- 

 erous visitant, which carries on its depredations on the 

 under sides of the leaves of plants, causing them to turn 

 brown. It flourishes most in dry weather, and spraying 

 the plants with some force or washing them with soap- 

 suds are the remedies. 



Aster Beetle. A merciless black beetle, which de- 

 scends upon the garden in hordes in late summer, at- 

 tacking the Asters, both perennial and annual, and 

 others of the composite class. A very weak solution of 

 Paris Green applied with a spray-bellows has proven a 

 good remedy. 



Green Fly, or Aphis. This is a tiny, soft green creature, 

 which swarms upon the tender young shoots of Roses, 

 Coral Honeysuckles, and many other plants, sucking up 

 their life juices and spoiling their fair promise. I read 

 that it breathes through pores in its sides, so ordinary 

 strangling is of no avail against it, and to kill it one must 

 stop up those pores. Tobacco dust is said to accom- 

 plish this mission, but after all, what can one hope to do 

 against a creature that in five generations is not only 

 able, but willing, to become the progenitor of five 



