No. 3.] Notes on insect pests from the Entojnological Section, 139 



The mode of application is as follows : — Take itb arsenic, ilB 

 caustic soda. Take four gallons of water, bring to boiling point, 

 add the caustic soda ; when dissolved, add the arsenic, stir well and 

 boil for a few minutes, care being taken not to inhale the fumes. 

 Keep this mixture under lock and key. Take as required half a 

 gallon of this mixture and add four gallons of hot or cold water and 

 lolB of brown sugar. Dip bagass, grass, or mealie stalks in this 

 liquor and place along roads, in cane-fields, or anywhere about grass 

 or low-growing crops, or splash with a whitewash brush on to any- 

 thing which the locusts may be observed to have a taste for. Locusts 

 will come from a hundred yards or more, attracted by the smell of 

 the sugar ; they eat and die, and are eaten by other locusts, and, if 

 they are taking the poison freely, in three or four days' time will be 

 seen covering the ground with their dead bodies, or will be found 

 where they have crept under grass or other cover to die. Some 

 people recommend a much stranger solution than the above, which 

 is that used by Mr. G. Wilkinson and is the weakest in use, and of 

 course if it is found to be equally effective with the stronger solutions 

 it is safer to use. 



With regard to the safety with which this poison may be used, 

 if the liquor is kept under lock and key, and the due precautions are 

 taken not to leave the sweetened liquor where any human being can 

 get at it, but to take it direct to the fields, it will be seen that, once 

 applied as directed, there is no chance of any human person being 

 poisoned and the small amount of poison in a piece of grass, bagass, 

 or mealie stalk is not enough to injure stock of any kind ; even fowls 

 have been known to feed on the arsenic-destroyed locusts without 

 hurt. Should any information with regard to the use of arsenic be 

 required, any enquiries addressed to the Secretary of the Inanda 

 Division Agricultural Association, Verulam, will receive attention. 



The Committee, in conclusion, would record their appreciation 

 of the public service rendered by Mr. Arnold Cooper by his scientific 

 researches into the diseases which are undoubtedly attacking the 

 locusts in this Colony, and they look with interest for his promised 

 paper on the results of his further investigations. 



(3) Storage of cereals into pits, etc., as a 



PREVENTIVE MEASURE AGAINST WEEVIL. 



The following report of experiments regarding the storage of 

 cereals into pits, etc^ as a preventive measure against weevil, has 



