Gardening for Amateurs 



685 



never leave the soil at all. The notes 

 already given will furnish methods of deal- 

 ing with many of these pests. 



Slugs and Snails are a source of never- 

 ending trouble to the gardener. These 

 pests have a most insatiable appetite, and 

 while they feed mostly after the sun goes 

 down, yet some of them pull vegetable 

 tissues into or partly into the soil in order 

 to continue the feast during the daytime. 

 Hand-picking at night with a lantern is 

 often carried out, the pests being dropped 

 among lime or into brine. Soil insecticides, 

 including soot, lime, etc., are often im- 

 potent to 

 reach the 

 pests, as 

 they exude a 

 slimy matter 

 which pro- 

 tects them ; 

 this protec- 

 tive exuda- 

 tion is limited, 

 however, and 

 repetition of 

 t r e a t m ent 

 finds them 

 unable to 

 protect them- 

 selves. Lime 

 or soot dusted 

 on the soil 

 and on the 

 plants is a 

 good preven- 

 tive ; barley 

 awns and 



sharp ashes round the plants will also keep 

 them off, and if the soil is regularly limed 

 and kept sweet they will give less trouble. 



Wireworms, or small " worms," which 

 attack the roots of most plants, are the 

 larvae of the Click Beetle, or Skip-jack. They 

 live for a long time in the soil before arriv- 

 ing at the quiescent stage, and are most 

 destructive. Pieces of Potato or other root 

 vegetables should be buried a few inches 

 in the soil here and there about the border ; 

 the wireworms will attack these, and if 

 the traps are examined regularly quite a 

 large number will in this way be removed 

 from the garden. Gas-lime and salt applied 



to the soil after a crop is removed will act 

 as a deterrent. Soot, slaked lime, and 

 nitrate of lime hoed into the soil around 

 the roots will help to keep the pests away. 

 Though the Click Beetles do not injure 

 plants, they should also be destroyed. 



Millipedes often devour vegetable fibres ; 

 lime in the soil keeps them from increasing, 

 but the powerful chemical sterilisers are 

 the best means of eradication. 



Eelworms are microscopic pests which 

 attack plants and ruin many crops ; sterilisa- 

 tion is again the only true remedy. 



Leather Jacket Grub. The black or 



Al and A2i Rose Slugworm and 

 E1 and E2, Bedeguar Gall-fly and 1 

 K1, K2 and Ks, 



Pests of the Rose. 



larva: Bi Rose Scale; C and D> Larvae of Sawflies; 

 irva: F, Rose-chafer: G. Thrips: H, Larva of a Sawfly ; 

 The Saws of Sawflies (much magnified). 



dark green grubs found in soils and called 

 Leather Jackets, are the larvae of the 

 " Daddy-long-legs " or Crane-fly. Trap 

 them by placing hollow pieces of raw Potato 

 in the soil, 2 inches below the surface ; 

 examine these occasionally, and kill the 

 pests found inside. 



There is no doubt that sterilisation, car- 

 ried out as we previously advised, is the 

 most effective way of clearing pests out of 

 all soils. Soil fumigants can be used, and 

 the amateur will find Vaporite, Kilogrub, 

 Clubicide, and the like excellent substances 

 to employ for eradicating the pests. These 

 are simply mild methods of soil sterilisa- 



