THE COUNTRY HOME [chapteh 



While the bees are at work collecting this deposit, 

 you will find the white-faced hornet all over the in- 

 fested trees, killing and eating the lice. Do not de- 

 stroy one of their paper nests, because you have not 

 a better friend in the insect kingdom. The lady- 

 beetles, or, as the children call them, carriage bugs, 

 are also of immense importance as aphis killers. 

 The chief trouble in combating lice is the immense 

 rapidity with which they multiply. Prof. Forbes 

 estimates that a single mother can produce, in a 

 season, nine and a half quadrillions of young. 



I have sometimes thought that lice on house 

 plants do not generally do more harm than good. 

 Among these indoor plants they eat up and clear 

 out of the way a lot of wretched, diseased, poison- 

 breeding pests. 



There are many sorts of scale bugs that infest 

 our orchards and gardens. They are all exceed- 

 ingly destructive, if allowed to have their way. 

 Young trees when infested should be thoroughly 

 swabbed with kerosene emulsion and whale oil 

 soap. The remedy must be applied several times 

 before the scales will be entirely eradicated. All 

 other varieties are comparatively harmless beside 

 the San Jose scale. This variety came from China 



[268] 



