091 earli/Jbrced Peach Trees. 315 



paid to washing every shoot with a hard brush and cold 

 water when the trees were pruned and tied, no aphis eggs nor 

 aphis capsules remained on them.* This probably caused 

 the ants to injure the peach blossoms, which was not dis- 

 covered until the opening of the petals of two or three of the 

 very earliest blooms, when the filaments, anthers, and pistil- 

 kim were observed to fall out of the corolla. On closer ex- 

 amination, we found that many of the earliest blossoms had 

 the unexpanded petals perforated, the filaments eaten out, and 

 the ants lodged in the nectaries feeding upon the honey. This 

 was on the evening of the 13th of December, and we imme- 

 diately commenced killing them by hand, dislodging them 

 from the blossoms with slender wires ; this was continued by 

 candlelight until most of the ants then on the trees were de- 

 stroyed. We were going to apply the ant- trap of Mr. Boyce 

 (Vol. V. p. 730.) ; but it was suggested that recently cooked 

 bones of roast or boiled meat or fish were used for ant-traps 

 on the Continent ; and we adopted them with good success. 

 They prevented any more ants from ascending the trees, until 

 the colony discovered itself under the fire-flue at its entrance 

 into the peach-house. They were immediately supplied with 

 the preparation as below, and two days after not one ant re- 

 mained, nor have any appeared since ; but it is necessary to 

 watch the spot for some weeks after a similar destruction, lest 

 any eggs should produce a new colony : — 



Take thin slices of wheaten bread (say ^ oz. weight), dry it 

 slowly, but well, that it may easily pulverise in a mortar; 

 take f oz. of fine loaf sugar, pulverise it also; add to the two 

 former ingredients ^ oz. of oxide of arsenic, commonly called 

 levigated mercury; triturate the whole well in the mortar, 

 then put it into a clean dry glass bottle : of course the bottle 

 should be labelled with the word " Poison." Very small 

 portions of this poison may be applied on fragments of glass 

 or the flat side of an oyster shell. The smell of recent oyster 

 shells is also an excellent decoy for ants. Small bell glasses, 

 such as are used to strike cuttings under, or small garden 

 flower-pots, may be put over the deposit of poison, to prevent 

 moisture from rendering it pasty, as well as to hinder any 

 domestic animals from taking it. If small portions are laid 

 down at intervals of four or six hours it will not become glu- 

 tinous, in which case the ants cannot separate it. If bell 

 glasses are used to cover the poison, any curious spectator 

 may see the avidity with which the ants carry off the poison 



* In Samouelle's Compendium of British Insects, at p. 62., it is stated that 

 the A'phides have the natural power to procreate, and that viviparously, to 

 the ninth generation, without sexual intercourse. 



