490 GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



Grubs with no Legs, are all the grubs of flies. Many only feed on decaying vege- 

 table matter, but a large number feed on the roots of various plants. Those of the 

 common daddy-long-legs (Tipula oleracea], often known as " Leather Jacket," are 

 particularly injurious. When full grown they are about i^ inch in length, and as 

 thick as a small quill. They are of a dull slaty brown colour, and though without legs 

 are able to move about with considerable rapidity. They may be caught by the same kind 

 of traps as the wireworms (but oilcake is of no use in their case), and also by laying pieces 

 of board, slates, tiles, bricks, or pieces of turf on the ground, as they will creep under such 

 things for shelter during the day. The traps should be examined every morning. The 

 grubs of the cabbage-fly attack the roots of Cabbages and other plants of that nature. 

 They are small grubs and are not more than one-third of an inch in length. They cannot 

 be trapped. The plants that are attacked should be taken up with a spud so as to take 

 away the soil just round the roots, and burnt. The holes made by their removal should 

 be filled with lime or soot so as to kill any grubs that may be left in the soil. Plants that 

 are only slightly injured may sometimes be saved by watering them two or three times 

 with one part of ammoniacal liquor from the gasworks to two of water. Onions and 

 Carrots are also attacked by the grubs of flies (Anthomyia ceparum and Psila roses). 

 The best method of destroying these pests is by pulling up and burning the infested 

 roots. To turn now to the 



Insects that Attack Plants Above Ground. Probably the different kinds of 

 aphides or plant lice, of which the common green-fly perhaps is the best known 

 species, are the most troublesome, for they infest so many different kinds of plants and 

 increase and multiply at times with such remarkable rapidity that it seems almost im- 

 possible to keep them in check. There are a large number of species, but they all injure 

 plants in the same way, by drawing off the juices through their long probosces, and by 

 covering the leaves with a sweet sticky secretion commonly known as honey-dew, which 

 drops on and clogs the pores of the leaves, &c. , that may be beneath them. One of the 

 chief things to be remembered in their destruction is to take some steps in that way as 

 soon as any are noticed, and not to think that a few cannot do much harm and so let them 

 be. In suitable weather they will increase, so that in a few days the plant will be 

 smothered with them. The best remedies for plants grown in the open air are spraying 

 with paraffin emulsion or quassia extract (see Insecticides), or some other insecticide con- 

 taining soft soap, such as "Paranaph" or "Abol," dusting the plants with powdered 

 tobacco, or snuff, or in some cases dipping the end of the shoots into tobacco water or 

 some other liquid insecticide. Under glass plants should be fumigated with tobacco 

 smoke, or strong tobacco water should be vaporised over a small stove. 



" American Blight " (Schizoneura lanigera), if only existing in small patches on a tree, 

 may be killed by dipping a camel's-hair brush in methylated spirit and thoroughly 

 wetting them with it ; but if the attack is extensive the infested parts should be well 

 scrubbed with a stiff brush and one of the soapy solutions just mentioned and the mixture 

 thoroughly worked into all the cracks, &c. , in the bark. Or the tree should be sprayed 

 with a caustic wash in the course of the winter (see Insecticides). The caterpillars of 

 butterflies and moths and the grubs of certain saw-flies that injure plants in the same 

 manner are best picked off by hand unless they are in such numbers that it is worth while 

 to syringe the plant with some insecticide. The grubs of the Currant saw-fly (Nematus 

 ribesii] and the Pear saw-fly (Eriocampa adumbrata), when full grown, drop to the ground 

 and become chrysalides in the soil, about 3 inches below the surface. If the ground 

 below the trees to that depth is removed and burnt, or buried not less than'a foot deep, the 

 insects will be destroyed. When leaves are rolled up by caterpillars, as rose leaves often 

 are, a close made basket or a box should be held under them while they are cut off, or the 

 leaves may be pinched so as to kill the occupant, if care be taken that it does not drop out 

 before the finger and thumb meet, as is often the case. 



Certain small 



Caterpillars and Grubs live inside the leaves between the skins, such as the grub of 

 the Marguerite daisy fly (Phytomyza affinis), which infest the leaves of that plant and 



live within the leaves of the plant that they are named after. The only way 

 destroying them is to pinch the leaf at the part where the grub is, or to pierce the leaf 

 with a pin or needle so as to stab the grub. If a leaf is very badly attacked, it should be 

 cut off and burnt. The leaves of Lilacs and Laburnums are sometimes very much in- 

 jured by the caterpillars of small moths (Gracillaria syringella and Cemiostoma labur- 

 niello] that feed inside the leaves. The caterpillars of the goat moth (Cossus ligniperda] 

 and the wood leopard rnoth (Zeuzera cesculi) sometimes attack our fruit trees, and cause 

 much injury to them by boring long galleries in their stems. They are best destroyed by 

 pushing a sharp-pointed wire into the hole until the insect is reached, or by injecting 



