26 



a considerable percentage of which were new to me. Carabidce were particularly abun- 

 dant under drift-wood and dead leaves on the damp, shady shore, and 35 species were 

 taken. ChrysomelidcB, Elatericloe, and Curculionidce, were next in number with 15, 13, 

 and 13 species respectively. After midsummer my opportunities for collecting were few, 

 and my notes correspondingly scanty. I will merely mention the capture at Aylmer 

 and Hull, on Oct. 2nd, of Aletia argillacea argentata^ the cotton moth ; both specimens 

 were in perfect order, not in the least rubbed or worn. In October, 1880, I took several 

 specimens about the city, also apparently recently emerged. 



CARBOLIC ACID AS A PREVENTIVE OF INSECT RAVAGES. 

 (Read before the Sub-Section of Entomology of the A. A. A. S.) 



By a. J. Cook, Lansing, Mich. 



One year ago I gave at the Boston meeting of the Association for the Advancement 

 of Science the results of some experiments in the use of London purple to destroy the 

 codling moth larva, and bisulphide of carbon in fighting the cabbage maggot and squash 

 borer. These experiments have been repeated the present season, and with results no 

 less favourable than those reported one year ago. I think it is an established fact that 

 the methods recommended are valuable. They not only seem reliable, but they promise 

 to be the cheapest and most desirable modes that can be made practicable on all occa- 

 sions. 



As stated last year, the bisulphide of carbon Avill al^o destroy the radish maggot 

 ( Anthomyia raphani), but owing to the great number of plants to be treated, the amount 

 of the liquid necessary to do thorough work is large, and so the expense is perhaps too 

 great to warrant its use in case of this insect. The present season I tried to see if we 

 might not make the application in a few places about the bed, at some distance apart, 

 and still effect our purpose to destroy the maggots. The result does not recommend this 

 liquid for the destruction of the radish Anthomyia with the same emphasis that we may 

 safely give in advising its use for the cabbage AntJiomyia and the squash jEgerian. This- 

 fact led me to cast about for some more desirable agent to be used against the radish fly, 

 and it occurred to me that carbolic acid, which is not only very repellant to insects, but 

 also quite as remarkable in retaining its obnoxious odour for a long time, might be made 

 most serviceable in this warfare. 



I prepared some of this material as follows : To two quarts of soft soap I added two- 

 gallons of water. This was then heated to a boiling temperature, when one pint of car- 

 bolic acid (in a crude state) was added. This mixture is then set away in a barrel or 

 other vessel, and is ready for use as occasion may require. I mixed one part of this 

 liquid to fifty parts of water, to be used on the radish plants. It was used by three par- 

 ties in three places. Mr. Lee used it in the College garden, a student — Mr. E. Hale — 

 used it on a bed specially prepared, and I used it in my own garden. Mr. Lee sprinkled 

 it on the plants, and poured it into a trench made close beside the row of plants. Mr. 

 Hale and myself sprinkled it directly on the plants. Messrs. Lee and Hale made but 

 one application, and found that it kept the insects at bay for about two weeks. Even 

 this proved of no little service. I made the application once every week, and the radishes 

 were almost entirely free from the maggots. My bed was seventy or eighty rods from 

 the other beds. But I caught the flies about my garden, and plants near by, not treated^ 

 were badly injured by the maggots. Two cautions should be urged : first, sprinkle the 

 plants as soon as they are up, and thereafter every week or ten days ; secondly, the mix- 

 ture, if sprinkled directly upon the plants, must not be so concentrated as to injure the 

 plants. My experiments this season make me feel certain that this will prove a valuable 

 remedy, and if cheaper, it may even replace the explosive bisulphide of carbon in fighting 

 the cabbage maggot and the squash jEgerian. 



