Vol. Ill, Nos. 9 and 10.] INSECT LIFE. [IssuedJane, 1891. 



SPECIAL NOTES. 



Economic Entomology in Canada.— The reports of the officials of the 

 Experiment Farms of Canada for 1890, have just reached us in the form 

 of a compact document of some 300 pages. Mr. James Fletcher, as En- 

 tomologist and Botanist, covers pages 154 to 188. The insects treated 

 are the American Frit Fly (Oscinis variabilis)^ the Cabbage Maggot, the 

 Cabbage Plutella, the Mediterranean Flour Moth, the Pea Weevil, the 

 Strawberry Weevil (AiitJionomus iniisculus) and the Vancouver Island 

 Oak-looper {EUopia somniaria). All of the articles are treated from an 

 original standpoint, and include the results of original experimental 

 work. He shows the differences in the effects of the attack of the Frit 

 Fly, the American Meromyza, and the Hessian Fly, differentiating care- 

 fully between the three species in all stages. A new remedy for the 

 Cabbage Maggot has been carefully tried and might answer on a small 

 scale. It consists in watering the cabbages with a decoction of 2 

 ounces of white hellebore in 3 gallons of water, a half teacupful being 

 syringed forcibly around the roots of each plant after the surface of 

 the soil has been removed by the hand. The liquid seems to act by 

 contact. Kerosene emulsion is, after experiment with a number of sub- 

 stances, unhesitatingly recommended for the Cabbage Plutella. It is 

 stated that Canadian seedsmen use bisulphide of carbon as a remedy 

 for the Pea Weevil very extensively. 



The statement is made that nearly every large grower has a build- 

 ing for the purpose, made perfectly tight with tin or cement. The 

 building is filled with bags, and a pan 10 feet across and 4 inches deep 

 is hung up close to the ceiling. It is then filled with the bisulphide, 

 the doors are tightly closed, and the building left for forty-eight hours. 

 The remedy is effectual when tried in warm weather. Exactly what 

 Canadians understand by the expression '^ warm weather " is then ex- 

 plained by the remark : " It does not work well when colder than 10 

 degrees above zero!" Against the Strawberry Weevil {Anthonomm 

 musculus) Mr. Fletcher suggests covering the beds, after the flower 

 buds are formed, with old newspapers, held down at the edges with a 

 few handfuls of earth, or with strips of cheese-cloth or musliu, to be put 

 on at the first appearance of the beetles and kept on until the flower has 



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