64 Insects : their Prevention and Cure. 



keep it close ; this with one of the corners torn off makes 

 an excellent smoking apparatus, and you need only to 

 puff the smoke from your pipe in at the corner till the 

 bag is full. Keep the corner shut with your fingers, 

 or pin it close for some time, and then let the smoke 

 escape by the corner. 



Two other insects, a small red spider and a longish 

 grey insect called Thripe, are very bad on plants. 

 Treating them the same way with tobacco smoke, and 

 washing the plants well, will exterminate them quickly. 

 They are as great a plague as greenfly when allowed to 

 increase. 



There are three other insects which may trouble 

 you sometimes, called Brown-scale, White-scale and 

 Mealy-bug. It is just a chance if ever you are troubled 

 with them. Brown- and white-scale stick close to the 

 stems giving them a spotted appearance. Mealy-bug 

 looks like a small patch of down sticking in the axil 

 of the leaves ; it is a small yellowish grey insect much 

 like a bug in shape with a soft white downy substance 

 wrapped round it. Hardwooded plants only are infested 

 with scale. Mealy-bug attacks hard and soft wooded 

 plants alike. A sponge and soap and water is the best 

 cure for them. 



You may be troubled with slugs. They crawl over 

 the plants leaving their slimy paths, and nibbling 

 at the leaves and tender shoots, often causing great 

 destruction. If you find their traces about your plants 

 hunt for them with a candle at night among the leaves 

 and pots ; you are sure to get them then if they are 

 there, as they come out during night to feed. 



