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THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



-For methods of catching the perfect 

 weevils on fruit-trees and bushes, see under 

 Black Vine Weevil and Clay-coloured Weevil. 

 Where the grubs of the Red-legged Garden 

 Weevil are numerous and destructive, methods 

 of destroying them must be undertaken in 

 winter. When the ground between Raspberries 

 and fruit bushes is being dug over in winter, the 

 white grubs may readily be detected and col- 

 lected by a boy following each workman digging. 

 Dressings of soot, quicklime, and gas-lime may 

 be given, taking care not to place the latter too 

 near the bushes unless it has been exposed to 

 the atmosphere for a month or more. Badly- 

 infested Strawberries may be trenched down, 

 putting the top spit in the bottom and placing ' 

 a good sprinkling of gas-lime over it to kill the 

 grubs. When the latter get into pots, the plants ; 

 should be turned out, their roots washed, and 

 repotted. 



Red Spider (Tetmnychus telarius). — In spite 

 of the name, this is neither a spider nor an 

 insect. The head and body are in one piece, 

 thinly furnished with bristly hairs, as are the 

 eight legs, and red or almost colourless accord- 

 ing to age. It is really one of the spinning 

 mites, hardly discernible to the naked eye 

 except in large numbers, and lives and multiplies 

 with amazing rapidity all the year round, pro- 

 vided the conditions are favourable. A fine 

 web is formed on the under surface of the leaves 

 of plants belonging to the most diverse families, 

 and here it lives in colonies beneath the web. 

 Dry conditions are most favourable to its multi- 

 plication, and these it most often finds on plants 

 cultivated under glass. Out-of-doors it proves 

 most troublesome in droughty summers; and 

 in any case its presence may be detected by 

 yellow spots on the leaves, which continue in- 

 creasing in area and number till the whole 

 leaf looks yellow and sickly, or in other cases 

 brown, and ultimately dies upon the plant or 

 drops off. 



Remedies. — Water is the great enemy to Red 

 Spider, so that it can easily be kept in check in 

 vineries, peach-houses, stoves, and similar places 

 by a liberal use of the syringe, and the damping 

 down of all available surfaces, particularly when 

 the houses are being closed in the afternoon. 

 When this is properly carried out in houses 

 where a moist atmosphere is permissible, the 

 cultivator has little to fear from the depreda- 

 tions of red spider. It is liable to increase with 

 great rapidity during the ripening of Peaches, 

 Figs, and Vines, but may again be reduced by 

 clean water, or by heavy syringings with strong 



soap-suds, or Gishurst compound, at the rate of 

 1 or 2 oz. to a gallon of rain-water, after the 

 fruit has been gathered. It is a very common 

 practice to paint the hot-water pipes in vineries 

 with a mixture of sulphur and water to destroy 

 Red Spider On no account paint flues, or the 

 Vines will run the risk of being injured or killed 

 In the open air, heavy rains prove effectual in 

 checking Red Spider. During dry weather the 

 garden engine should be plied vigorously upon 

 Peach and other fruit-trees attacked, as well as 

 herbaceous plants such as the Hollyhock, using 

 clean water. Valuable plants can be cleansed 

 very effectually by the use of a mixture of flowers 

 of sulphur and water, or fairly strong soap-suds, 

 separately or in mixture. The receipt given for 

 the Currant Aphis would answer admirably if 

 preferred to the above remedies. In any case, 

 apply the remedy early before the pest has 

 time to greatly injure the leaves; the under 

 surface of the latter, particularly, should be 

 well wetted. 



Rose Aphides. — Roses are very liable to 

 attack by at least two species of aphides, whilst 

 two or more others are less frequent upon them. 

 The most conspicuous, most abundant, and de- 

 tructive, is Siphonopliora Bosce, the wingless fe- 

 males of which vary from pale-greenish or yellow- 

 ish to olive, slaty-gray, and red. Sijrfwnophora 

 rosarum frequently feeds in company with the 

 former upon Roses of many kinds, both under 

 glass and in the open air. It is much smaller, 

 light or yellowish-green, and covered all over 

 with pin-headed bristles in the wingless, female 

 form. 



Remedies. — Clean water, applied forcibly with 

 the garden engine, is serviceable by washing 

 the black filth and excrement from the foliage, 

 j but the aphides take shelter on the under side 

 of the leaves, or if they get knocked down 

 many crawl up the stems again in a few hours. 

 In bad cases the Roses may be syringed with 

 the juice of 1 lb. of tobacco in 6 gallons of 

 water, with a lump of soft soap added, to make 

 it adhere to the insects. This may be done late 

 in the afternoon, and the bushes thoroughly 

 drenched with clean water next morning. The 

 operation should be repeated after seven days, 

 if necessary, to destroy any aphides that may 

 have escaped, or those that may have come from 

 a distance. 



Rose Sawflies. — These species of sawfly are 

 characterized by four membranous wings and a 

 process like a double saw at the tail end, used 

 for making slits in the leaves or stems of plants 

 for the purpose of laying and fixing their eggs, 



