INSECTS OF THE ORCHARD. Ill 



rough bark. If you pry them up with your penknife you find 



Fig- 57. Bark covered with larvae of oyster-shell bark lice. 



that they are not rough bark, but scales. What are these little 

 scales or shells ? As the weather becomes warmer little white 

 insects come out from under these shells, and for a couple or 

 days the bark swarms with life. Then they settle down, get 

 their tiny beaks into the soft bark, and suck the sap of the 

 tree. At the end of summer we find the scales with a nest ot 

 eggs underneath. Protected by the scale, the eggs remain 

 uptil next summer, when out again come the tiny insects to 

 live upon the sap of the tree. Spray with kerosene emulsion. 

 THE APHIS. These are to be found on all of our fruit trees. 

 They are noticed as green bugs less than one-tenth of an inch 

 long. They suck the sap out of the leaves and green bark, and 

 are sometimes found on the roots. The eggs are laid in the 

 fall in the cracks of the bark, and in the next summer we are 

 surprised at the large number of green wingless lice that appear 

 as if by magic and do so much damage in a short time (see 

 page 83). Keep the bark clean and spray the trees in the 

 spring, as soon as the insects appear, with kerosene emulsion, a 

 diluted mixture of soft-soap and coal-oil. We have stated before, 

 page 79, that lady-beetles are very destructive to plant lice. 

 Different kinds of plant lice are found on the apple, cherry, 

 peach, currant, cabbage, strawberry roots and in grain. Since 

 they increase so very rapidly, spraying should be done as soon 

 as the lice appear. House plants may be washed with whale- 

 oil soap or tobacco water. 



