136 Milady's House Plants 



White Fly 



Curiously enough, belongs to the scale insect 

 family, and is the one case in which the male insects 

 appear in large numbers and fly about the infested 

 plants freely. It is of somewhat modern introduction 

 and was first studied and described in the United 

 States about twenty years ago. The young are 

 produced on the under side of leaves and in great 

 numbers; they are most voracious and will quickly 

 suck the life from the most robust foliage. They are 

 also protected by a hard white waxy substance and 

 until the insecticide mentioned on page 138 was in- 

 troduced nothing had been found that would destroy 

 them that was not otherwise dangerous to the plants. 

 They generally attack plants with soft leaves, that will 

 not stand the hose spray, so in this case that remedy 

 cannot be applied. 



The Common Worm 



Seldom, or never, do insects attack the roots of 

 house plants and the common worm, at whose door 

 more charges are laid than at all the others put to- 

 gether, is the most innocent. He is a nuisance, how- 

 ever, and though he does not eat the roots as charged 

 he tunnels round and through the bole of earth in 

 search of leafmold or other decaying vegetable matter 

 to such an extent as to reduce the whole mass to 

 fine mud. This is not only unpalatable to the roots 

 of the plants but invariably the worm works his way 

 down into the drainage, rendering it of little or no 

 effect. His presence in the soil is indicated by the 

 little hillocks of myd which are thrown up on the sur- 



