GARDEN INSECTS 227 



the trees from their tops to their trunks. The robins and 

 bluebirds, meadow larks and blackbirds, many of the spar- 

 rows, toads, frogs, and salamanders, and several of our 

 harmless snakes (probably) feed largely on the insects of 

 the ground. We need to know and cherish them all ; and 

 when we attain to this larger response to nature the insect 

 problem will be for the most part a thing of the past. What 

 insects now destroy we may have for education, art, and sci- 

 ence. But until that time arrives we shall need to know 

 some other methods of dealing with insects, and many of 

 them are much in vogue at present. 



Insects that chew — potato beetle, currant worm, rose slug, canker- 

 worm, tent caterpillar, cabbage worm, codling moth, as it gnaws its 

 way into the fruit, and a host of others — may be combated by 

 means of poisons dusted or sprayed upon their food plant. A Spray- 

 Calendar, which any one can obtain from the Agricultural Experiment 

 Station of his state, will give the formulas for all the different sprays 

 and the times when each should be applied. 



Insects that suck — plant lice, scale insects, squash bugs, and bugs 

 generally — require substances that will kill by contact, or soapy or 

 oily mixtures that will get into their breathing pores and smother 

 them. Your Spray-Calendar will give all of these preparations with 

 directions for their use. 



Insects that bore can be detected by the sawdust-like chips or the 

 exudations of sap or gum from burrows. Those that work in or just 

 under the bark may be cut out with a knife. Such as work deeper 

 can often be destroyed with a piece of piano wire. Another way to 

 reach the villains is to inject a little carbon bisulphide into the burrow 

 and quickly plug it up tight. 



