546 DISEASES OF CULTIVATED PLANTS 



tiny mites feed not only on the outside of the bulbs, but they 

 exist between the leaf scales of the bulb, feeding and laying 

 their eggs in the interior, where they can scarcely be reached. 

 The best plan is to burn infested bulbs, and the soil whence 

 these have been removed should be disinfected. 



2. Wash or spray the bulbs with paraffin, the treatment 

 being repeated a fortnight later. 



3. Wash the bulbs in sulphide of potassium (liver of 

 sulphur), i oz. to 3 gallons of water, or brush with this after 



FIG. 166. Rhizoglyphus echinopus, the 

 'bulb mite'; has destroyed the roots of a 

 Hippeastrum bulb. 



removal of the outside loose scale leaves. This treatment is 

 useful against fungi which follow the attack of the mite. 



4. Fumigate with bisulphide of carbon. The bulbs to be 

 treated should be placed in an air-tight receptacle, and a 

 saucer, into which bisulphide of carbon has been poured, 

 placed on the top of them. The bulbs should be left in the 

 vapour for forty-eight hours. This treatment could be usefully 

 extended to imported bulbs, which ought to be examined for 

 the mite. The formula for fumigation on this larger scale is 

 one pint of bisulphide of carbon to 1000 cubic feet of space. 



