1274 THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 



to ants. They should be destroyed or driven away before the wall fruit 

 are ripe, as few things are more unpleasant than to have one's finest 

 fruit disfigured or destroyed by these insects. 



XIX. — Woodliee, Blaekheetles. and Ladybirds. 



WooDLicB will also eat peaches, but, unless ia rough walls or very 

 old gardens, they are seldom found in such numbers as to do serious 

 injury. The reed trap is useful for them also, and, better still, cold 

 potato, placed in small pots, filled nearly full of moss, and laid along 

 the base of the wall. These should be examined every morning and 

 the woodliee drowned. Blackbeetles and cockroaches also eat peaches 

 and nectarines. They may be trapped by similar methods, and also 

 caught on the feed at night, though it needs sharp eyes and hands to catch 

 the latter. Ladybirds seldom come in sufiieient quantities to do. much 

 harm. Occasionally, however, they beset us in swarms or clouds, almost 

 like locusts ; and on such occasions they devour ripe peaches and pears 

 in a wholesale way that is quite alarming. They are, however, easily 

 destroyed by hand-picking, as they seem to become stupid, sluggish, or 

 intoxicated, as they gorge themselves with fruit. 



XX.~Bluebotth Flies, Bees, Wasps, Butterflies, Hornets, 



It is best to class aJl these together, as they are all destroyed by 

 similar means, that is, by various decoys or traps. There is nothing 

 so attractive to all these as «> mixture of beer and sugar. The 

 vinous smell of these attracts them more strongly than the aroma 

 of the richest peach or nectarine. The best bottle is a clear glass 

 one, made on purpose, with a large hole in its wide top, the glass 

 sloping down to it, and a hole in one side of the top, which is 

 corked up, unless when used for emptying. No sooner does a wasp 

 or fly light on the inclined plane than in it goes, and not one in a 

 thousand ever gets out again. The quantity of fruit-eating winged 

 things caught with such bottles is simply astounding. Each holds 

 about a pint and a half, and they should -be emptied daily where these 

 clestructive insects abound. A peck of dead insects a morning from two 

 dozen bottles is nothing extraordinary. Bluebottles generally preponde- 

 rate, then waspB> next butterflies, hornets, moths, &o. It is difficult to 

 determine at times which are most destructive to the fruit. The order 



