160 BULBS AND THEIR CULTIVATION. 



favourable to it. Frequent syringing with water will 

 prevent its increase, or spraying with an insecticide at 

 once destroy it if numerous. 



Wlreworms These, the larvae of Click Beetles, are 

 most destructive to bulbs. They have yellowish, cylin- 

 drical, and jointed bodies, six legs in front and a pair be- 

 hind, and must not be confounded with the active little 

 animals known as Millipedes, with legs all along each side 

 of the body. The wireworms live from three to five years 

 in the larval stage, then pupate, and become beetles in 

 due course. 



EBMEDIES. Wireworms are voracious insects, and used 

 to be difficult to eradicate till soil fumigants were intro- 

 duced. Either of these, dug deeply into the soil before 

 planting, will soon eradicate wireworms, and do no harm 

 to the bulbs. If these substances are always dug into the 

 soil before planting, earth pests will be an unknown 

 quantity. The old idea was to bury pieces of cut 

 potato tuber or carrot, attached to the sticks, in the soil. 

 These had to be lifted daily, and the wireworms found 

 thereon pulled off and killed under foot or broken in 

 halves. 



Eucharis Mite. This is a minute creature, nearly 

 akin to the well-known Eed Spider. The individual mites 

 can scarcely be discerned by the naked eye, so small are 

 they. Examined under a lens, they are seen to have 

 colourless bodies furnished with bristly hairs. They 

 attack Eucharis bulbs specially, but will not hesitate to 

 attack other evergreen and deciduous bulbs, feeding on 

 their outer scales and causing decay to set in. 



REMEDIES. Bulbs badly infested with this pest speedily 

 become unhealthy. If bulbs are discovered with decayed 

 scales covered with reddish patches, and the mites can 

 be seen by means of a lens, immediately burn all badly- 

 infested bulbs and the soil, and plunge the pots in boiling 



