ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 



97 



the scale and one feeds upon it almost wholly, yet they have not 

 held it in check in Connecticut. Most of these bright little 

 beetles, usually red in color, with conspicvious spots, are bene- 

 ficial because they feed upon other insects and especially upon 

 plant lice and scale insects. We cannot expect, however, to 

 hold the San Jose scale in check by this means only. It is 

 necessary to treat the trees in some other way to kill this insect 

 in order to save the trees. We have found that here in Con- 

 necticut, if we spray the trees just before the leaves appear in 



Fig. 15.— Plums showing the reddish discoloration caused by the Insects. 



the spring with a mixture of kerosene and water, using 20 to 

 25 per cent, of kerosene, we can kill nearly all the insects upon 

 a given tree. Crude oil may be used in place of kerosene and 

 either should be mixed with water under pressure by means 

 of a pump for the purpose. We can kill nearly all of the scales, 

 but it is impossible to kill them all because we cannot bring 

 this preparation into contact with them all. It is almost impos- 

 sible to spray a tree so thoroughlv that some will not escape. 

 But the application is so effective that in some instances less 

 than one per cent, of the scale have been found after this treat- 

 ment. Of course what I have said does not apply to trees in 

 foliage because if we were to use this strength of kerosene and 



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