78 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



be pulled off. By # persisting in these methods 

 the pest will be subdued. 



Raspberry Beetle. — For description and 

 remedies see under Bud and Flower Enemies. 



Rats. — The Norway Rat, now called the Com- 

 mon Brown Rat (Mus decumanus), is the only one 

 with which the gardener has to contend. It is 

 an unwelcome visitor in vineries, seed and potato 

 stores, and many other places, where it proves 

 extremely destructive if not exterminated or 

 kept away. 



Remedies. — A good cat should be encouraged 

 in vineries where it is difficult to exclude rats. 

 Feed it there, but not well, otherwise it will 

 become lazy. A hole for egress and ingress 

 should be left somewhere above the ground level. 

 Wooden or box traps may also be used; and 

 iron rat-traps, carefully hidden, may be placed 

 in the runs of the enemy in houses from which 

 cats are excluded. These remedies are safer 

 than laying poison in fruit-houses. In vineries 

 a wire or cord may 

 be stretched tightly 

 across, and near the 

 place where the 

 vine-rods bend, at 

 the eaves of the 

 house. Circular 

 pieces of tin, with a 

 hole in the centre, 

 may be strung on 

 the wire just where 

 the rats would be 

 most likely to climb 

 the rods, so that in 

 clutching at the ob- 

 struction in their 

 way the tin would 

 turn and throw the 

 rats to the ground. 

 In all cases, how- 

 ever, an effort 

 should be made to 

 exclude them from 

 all houses by ce- 

 menting up their 

 holes, using brick- 

 bats or broken glass 

 to be bound in with 

 the cement. 



Red Grub of Plum (Carpocapsa funebrana). 

 — Several other names have been given to this 

 moth, which measures about J inch in expanse. 

 The fore-wings are gray, clouded with a much 

 darker, or almost black hue, and having an 

 eye -spot near the outer end. The caterpillar 



w 



Fig. 94.— Plum Grub and Moth 

 (Carpocapsa funebrana). 



is pale -red, with a black head and brown neck. 

 The female lays an egg on each fruit early in 

 June, and the caterpillars pierce the fruit, living 

 upon the soft parts around the stone, where they 

 may be found in August, causing the plums to 

 drop. 



Remedies. — All fruits that drop prematurely 

 should be collected immediately and burnt or 

 destroyed. Trees that are known to be infested 

 should be shaken occasionally, and the fruits 

 which drop treated in the same way. Soon after 

 the plums drop, the caterpillars leave the fruit 

 and seek a sheltered place, generally in the 

 crevices of the bark, where they spin a cocoon 

 and pass the winter. Scrape the trees to re- 

 move all loose material and cocoons, burning the 

 scrapings directly. 



Snake Millipedes. — For remedies see Mil- 

 lipedes, under Root Enemies. 



Wasps (Vespa vulgaris). — The mischievous 

 character of wasps to many soft fruits during 

 the time they are ripening is but too well 

 known. 



Remedies. — Open-mouthed bottles, partly filled 

 with water, and strongly flavoured with syrup, 

 molasses, London stout, or something similar, 

 may be hung up in vineries, or amongst the 

 branches of wall-trees. Attracted by the scent, 

 many wasps will be lured to their destruction. 

 Valuable bunches of grapes, or even other fruits 

 that are intended to be kept for some time, may 

 be covered with gauze, fine muslin, or tissue- 

 paper, to exclude wasps. In the open garden, 

 pears, plums, peaches, gooseberries, and others 

 may be saved from destruction by elevating a 

 hand-light upon bricks amongst the trees ; make 

 a small hole in the top of this, and place over 

 it a sound one closely fitting the first. Under 

 the bottom one lay some injured plums or pears 

 cut open to attract the enemy. After feeding 

 they often fly up through the hole in the bottom 

 light, and are unable to find their way back. 

 Hundreds of others, attracted by the buzzing, 

 follow to their fate. When numerous they may 

 be destroyed by burning sulphur beneath, or 

 by submerging both the lights in a tub or tank 

 of water. Hanging nests may be destroyed by 

 means of pieces of rag dipped in boiling sul- 

 phur; these when dry may be tied on a long 

 pole, lighted, and held under the nest in the 

 dusk of the evening. Squibs might be lighted 

 and pushed into the openings of nests in the 

 ground, covered over, and the nests dug out 

 when the wasps are stupefied or killed. By 

 partly digging out a nest and filling the hole 

 with water after the insects have settled, they 



