CHAPTER VI 

 PLANT LICE 



"Plant lice! Ugh," you say, "who wants to read about 

 those nasty things! All I want to know is how to get rid 

 of them." Yes, but the very fact that those soft green 

 bugs that cover your roses, your nasturtiums, your cab- 

 bages, and your fruit trees at certain seasons reappear 

 so persistently, after you think you have exterminated 

 them, shows that they possess some hidden source of 

 power; and the secrets of a resourceful enemy are at least 

 worth knowing — besides, they may be interesting. 



Really, however, insects are not our enemies; they are 

 only living their appointed lives, and it just happens that 

 we want to eat some of the same plants that they and their 

 ancestors have always fed on. Our trouble with the in- 

 sects is just that same old economic conflict that has bred 

 the majority of wars; and, in the case between us and the 

 insects, it is we who are the aggressors and the enemies of 

 the insects. We are the newcomers on the earth, but we 

 fume around because we find it already occupied by a host 

 of other creatures, and we ask what right have they to be 

 here to interfere with us! Insects existed millions of 

 years before we attained the human form and aspirations, 

 and they have a perfectly legitimate right to everything 

 they feed on. Of course, it must be admitted, they do not 

 respect the rights of private property; and therein lies 

 their hard luck, and ours. 



The plant lice are well known to anyone who has a 

 garden, a greenhouse, an orchard, or a field of grain. 

 Some call them "green bugs"; entomologists usually call 



[15*1 



