241 



ally spraj' the trees. He therefore picked the fruit as the ouly remedy. 



The same difficulty — that the bugs are coutinually flying to the 



groves — will operate against any remedy which may be tried at this 



time. The only remedy previously published we may quote from Mr» 



Hubbard : 



As was long ago suggested by Mr. Glower, in his report above mentioned, the bugs 

 I may be attracted to small heaps of sugar-cane trash with which Paris green or some 

 other poison should be mixed ; or the bugs, when collected upon piles of cotton-seed 

 in winter, may be destroyed by drenching them with boiling hot water. The expe- 

 rience of several cotton planters with this last method has shown it to be practica- 

 ble, but to be effective it must be thoroughly carried out. As the eggs can not all be 

 }' reached and destroyed by hot water, the operation needs to be repeated several times 

 i at such frequent intervals that the bugs are not allowed to reach maturity and deposit 

 fresh eggs. 



In the orange grove effective traps may be made with refuse oranges, orange j)eel, 

 etc., and the bugs, when thus collected, may be destroyed with the kerosene washes 

 used for Scale insects. The kerosene solutions will also be more effective than hot 

 water in reaching and killing the eggs. 



As Mr. Hubbard further states, the cultivation of cotton through the 

 orange-growing district of Florida is for many other reasons likely ta 

 diminish rather than to increase, and with the abandonment of this 

 cultivation we may expect the Red Bug to do less and less damage to 

 oranges, if not to disappear entirely as an orange pest, unless (and this 

 is not over likely to happen) it should breed extensively upon some 

 wild plant. 



CAN THE RED BUa BE USED AS A DYE? 



In the old daj's of expensive dye substances it was thought from the 

 brilliant red color of these bugs that they could be used for some such 

 purpose. Accordingly Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston, was sent a 

 number of these bugs in 1858 from this Department (then a bureau of 

 the Patent Office), and from his report, published in the Annual Report 

 for that year, it appears that the whole substance of the insect could 

 be converted into a rich orange-yellow dye which could be readily fixed 

 upon woolens or silks by the alum-mordant liquor. He also found that 

 an ochreous yellow-lake could be made from them by precipitating the 

 coloring matter with gelatinous alumina. 



A PARASITE OF THE SUPPOSED EGGS OF THE COTTON STAINER. 



By L. O. Howard. 



In tlie article just preceding this parasite is mentioned and at Fig. 50 

 is shown one of the eggs which was so transparent that the contained 

 parasite <30uld be quite plainly seen. Carefully removing the egg-shell 

 the i)arasites were found to be adults and in such perfect condition — 

 evidently just ready to issue — that the following description was drawn 



