ORANGE INSECTS AND DISEASES, 85 



pieces. As far as I can ascertain by consul tin- Packard's Guide, IgueSfl 

 it may be a species of Ixodes. Is it a common pest? — [H. 0. Beards- 

 lee, Painesville, Ohio, July 1, 1883. 



[The tick was a variety of Ixodes bovis.] 



Orange Rust Mite, Mealy Bug, and Tap-Root Disease. 



Having business near Orange Lake during the past week, I visited 

 several orange groves. I found all of the Florida varieties of scale- 

 insects in abundance. Oranges are already rusty, and the rust mite in 

 many places, on both leaves and fruit, in such large numbers as to give 

 a distinct coloration, distinguishable at a distance of ten feet. 



But the most destructive insect, at present absorbing all the attention 

 of the orange-growers there, is the mealy bug, Dactylopius destructor. 

 This insect causes the fruit to rot under the colonies. A favorite place 

 of lodgment is at the stem, under the calyx; the result is, the fruit 

 drops. 



I staid there three days to examine methods used and experiment in 

 their destruction. 



The cottony armor repels all wateiy solutions. 



The methods used are : spraying each separate colony with pure ker- 

 osene by means of bellows atomizers; and mechanical action — rubbing 

 or pinching each separate colony (by colony I mean the little clusters 

 consisting of from ten to several hundred individuals) ; this is done by 

 the fingers. 



I examined the trees that had been treated with the kerosene spray 

 and found both the leaves and fruit spotted yellow. 1 was also in- 

 formed that fruit saved in this way two years ago was useless, having 

 absorbed the odor of kerosene. The effective progress made by the 

 means used is trifling, in consideration of the work to be done. I tried 

 experiments with solutions of mnrvite, sprayed on, but with no good 

 result; then tried kerosene butter, using thick, milky solution of mnr- 

 vite, which combines inexactly the same way as with cow's milk, and 

 found that an effective emulsion could thus be made. 



After using and watching the action of this for some time, 1 saw that 

 the interior insects of a dense mass were protected by the exterior ones: 

 further experiments were made to meet this difficulty. By watching 

 the men at work I saw that nearly every infested orange was handled 

 to turn all of its sides to the eye; that wherever a large colony found 

 lodgment in a fork of twigs or in a depression of the bark they were 

 handled, also that the bunches of Spanish moss (Tillandsia) formed 

 formidable breeding places. All of these require force for their dislodg- 

 ment. 



