GREEN SOLDIEB-BUG OX ORANGE TREES. H3 



crease of the pest. Adjoining this old field was a wild orange grove 

 in a dense forest. Many of the sour stumps had large sweet bads, 

 neither tin' buds nor sour trees giving- any signs of the red rust until 

 the winter following the clearing, and after a crop of pea- vines had been 

 grown among the trees. Xow the trees in this wild grove are just as 

 much damaged as in the old field adjoining. Another case I will men- 

 tion, and not trespass further on your patience. Five miles distant is 

 the grove of L. Merritt, a wild grove budded. The buds are six years 

 old and ought to be bearing heavy crops, but an occasional bloom is all. 

 The trees have been in an unhealthy and " die back " condition for sev- 

 eral years. When visiting his grove in the fall of 1881, 1 told him I had 

 some trees in the same condition and was inclined to think the Green 

 Bug was the cause. Since that time he has persistently hunted the bug, 

 whipping it out of the large trees with poles, and killing wherever 

 found ; also he stopped planting peas. I have j ust visited his grove and 

 found but two twigs damaged, and could not find a specimen of the 

 bug. The trees have changed so remarkably in this grove that it was 

 past recognition. Instead of a dense crop of dead twigs all over his 

 grove, as at a previous visit, the trees had nearly doubled in size, and 

 had a very large, healthy growth of branches in place of the dead twigs. 

 I hear his trees are now in profuse bloom. I do not think that washes 

 will do much damage to the bug. Very strong whale-oil soap rarely 

 kills. Whale-oil soap, 1 pound; kerosene oil, 1 pint; water. 12 pints : 

 sometimes kills when sprayed over them, nearly always when immersed. 

 Pure kerosene kills, but not always instantly. 



The Green Bug has a parasite. I do not know what, but I frequently 

 -find, their shells with the inside devoured. Last winter I buried a num- 

 ber to see if plowing under would kill them. In ten days none were 

 dead; in three weeks 20 per cent, were dead, nothing remaining but the 

 shells: in six weeks all but one were dead, empty shells remaining. 

 The living insect 1 put in a bottle with a little earth over it. hoping to 

 find the parasite, but unfortunately in about ten days the bottle was 

 broken, the Green Bug was dead, the empty shell as in the other in- 

 stances. 



At present the insect is very rare here; if found at all. generally ou 

 the mustard plant or a weed locally known as nightshade. Yesterday, 

 while showing a lemon tree to some visitors, I found some of the twigs 

 drooping and remarked it looked like the work of the Green Bug. One 

 was found under a leaf close to his work. I send you one of the shoots. 

 If at any time you may consider the subject of sufficient importance to 

 send a trained observer in the field, I will be happy to see him here and 

 place every facility at his disposal. 



With apologies for the length of my letter. — [JAME8 FRANK] in. \\'<st 

 Apopka, Fla., January 31, 1883, 



