Hand-picking 



tender shoots, although spraying is generally prefer- 

 able. 



A modified form of hand-picking is used with 

 mealy-bugs, which are touched by a brush wet with 

 methylated spirit, and woolly aphis upon apple tree 

 are treated in the same way. 



None of these methods are capable of use on a 

 large scale, nor is the commonly employed method of 

 pinching between finger and thumb the blisters made 

 by the grubs of the celery fly, and the marguerite or 

 chrysanthemum fly, effective as it is on a small 

 scale. Where only a few plants have to be dealt 

 with these methods are not to be despised. Hand- 

 picking too is the only method to adopt when roots 

 of plants in pots are attacked by wireworms or 

 weevil grubs (Otiorrhynchus). 



A combination of the dipping method and hand- 

 picking has often to be adopted where scale-insects 

 attack plants. The scales often cHng so closely to 

 the stalks and leaves of palms, orchids, and so on, 

 that their removal with a blunt stick and the spong- 

 ing of the fohage with the soft-soap-sulphur dip 

 referred to on p. 134 is desirable. 



The collection of the grey angular chrysalides of 

 the white cabbage butterfly from their winter quarters 

 under the rails of fences, window ledges, and so on, 

 would be a material help in checking the ravages of 

 this pest upon our vegetables. 



Wormy apples too should be collected before the 

 125 



