ON PESTS GENERALLY. 1085 



a sort of funnel-shaped receptacle out of clay. Sometimes the 

 insects tunnel so deeply that they are not reached by 

 insecticides. Then a good plan is to place a large inverted 

 flower-pot, partly filled with leaves, and having the drainage-hole 

 plugged up, over the nest. If the ground in the vicinity of 

 the nest be watered pretty frequently the colony will take to 

 the pot, when they may be readily destroyed by means of hot 

 water. 



Indoors traps of another sort are best. These may consist of 

 large bones on which a little meat has been left, sponges soaked 

 in a syrupy fluid, and treacle and arsenic in saucers (a very 

 poisonous mixture). In the first two cases the traps will need 

 to be examined and the insects dropped into boiling water. 

 Spring is the best time to trap, as then there are the young to 

 be fed and tended, and food must be found in abundance by 

 the workers, and on their destruction by the queens. Ballikinrain 

 is also a preparation that may be used with excellent effect in 

 fruit-houses. Lasius niger, a small black species, is the one 

 which gives most trouble in gardens. 



Aphides, Plant Lice, or Green-Fly. — No insects are more 

 familiar than these, or more difficult to keep in check, as they 

 multiply by means of oviparous and viviparous females as 

 well as parthenogenetically. The life-cycle is a complex one. All 

 Aphides are' soft-skinned sucking insects, and would therefore be 

 readily destroyed by contact if they were always accessible. 

 Unfortunately for the gardener they are not, frequently concealing 

 themselves in the foliage, which, when badly attacked — as in the 

 case of fruit- and rose-trees, &c. — has a tendency to curl. Then, 

 again, there are root-feeders in the American Blight and in the 

 destructive Phylloxera of the Grape; and gall-makers, like Rhopa- 

 losiphum ribis, a species found upon the Black and the Red 

 Currant. Another peculiarity is that certain Aphides migrate 

 from one plant to another. Phorodon humuli, for instance, which 

 infests Plums in autumn and winter, betakes itself to the Hops in 

 spring, and does immense damage. 



Some of the most destructive and commonest species are the 

 Black Fly, or Black Dolphin, upon Beans, the Cherry and 

 Currant Aphis {Myzus cerasi), Apple Aphis (Aphis malt), Plum 

 Aphis {Aphis pruni), Rose Aphis (Aphis rosa), Peach Aphis 

 {Aphis amygdali), and the Hop Aphis (Phorodon humuli) already 

 alluded to. 



Directly an attack of Aphis occurs, the trees or plants should 

 be sprayed with either kerosene emulsion, or a quassia and soft 

 soap solution "made by boiling ilb. of the former and adding the 

 liquor to ilb. of soft soap and i6gals. of water. Abol is also a 

 thoroughly good remedy, and has been very successfully 

 employed in keeping down the Plum and Hop Aphis. Popularly, 

 all kinds of Aphides are called " Blight." 



