226 



FRUITS. 



[chap. 



the wall. That is their great place of resort ; and frequent 

 stirring and making the ground very fine, disturbs the peace of 

 their numerous families, gives them trouble, makes them uneasy, 

 and finally harasses them to death. 



310. WASPS. — These are enemies of another sort, and, in 

 some years, most troublesome they are. They fix upon the finest 

 fruit, and, in some seasons, long before it be ripe. They will eat 

 a green-gage plum to a shell ; and, while they spoil your fruit, they 

 will not scruple to sting you if you come to interrupt their enjoy- 

 ment. The first thing to do is to destroy all the wasps' nests 

 that you can find anywhere in the neighbourhood. These nests 

 are generally in banks. Discover the nest in the day-time, 

 open it with a spade at night, and pour in boiling water. There 

 is a little bird, called the red-start, that destroys the wasps ; but 

 boys are their great enemies ; and about sixpence a nest will keep 

 any neighbourhood pretty clear of wasps. But, the great remedy 

 is to kill them when they come to the tree, and that is done in 

 this way : you fill a pretty large phial half full of beer mixed with 

 brown sugar ; the wasps, attracted by this, go down into the phial 

 and never come out again. The phials must be emptied every 

 day, if anything like full, and put up again with fresh sugar and 

 beer. A string is tied round the neck of the phial, w^hich is thus 

 fastened round some part of the tree. There must, however, be a 

 considerable number of these phials attached to every tree. 



311. FLIES. — Great flies, like the flesh-flies, feed upon all 

 the softer fruits ; and even upon apples and pears. They are 

 destroyed or kept down precisely in the manner directed for the 

 wasps. Some persons, in order to preserve fine pears, cover them 

 over with bunting, a piece of which they tie completely over each 

 pear : this is a very troublesome, but a veiy effectual, method. 



