IX 



PESTS 



149 



begins to produce young ones ready to commence juice 

 sucking at once, at the rate of a dozen or so a day for 

 months. In this manner it is said as many as seventeen 

 generations may be produced before the males appear, 

 and it is calculated that the descendants of a single 

 aphis in one season might thus be reckoned by 

 millions. 



Strength, vigour, and cleanliness in the plants seem 

 to be the best preventive measures. It may appear 

 strange that vigour and health should keep off an insect 

 foe, which we should fancy would be naturally congre- 

 gated where there was the greatest abundance of sap 

 for food, but though they are to be found on healthy 

 plants, it will, I think, be generally allowed that the 

 weaker ones are the most attacked. 



Destructive and remedial measures are many and 

 various. Almost every insecticide known is advertised 

 as destroying them ; and no w r onder, for they are delicate 

 creatures with no power of escape, and are easily killed. 

 The golden rule for all pests — attack the first symptoms 

 with immediate vigour — is especially applicable in this 

 case. A constant look out, and crushing every one as 

 soon as seen, never leaving it till to-morrow, is the 

 remedy for aphides. 



Of all instruments and apparatus for the destroying 

 of pests there is nothing like the industrious finger and 

 thumb, used in the early stages. When a zealous 

 amateur discovers a few aphides and sends off at once 

 to get and boil his quassia chips, according to the ap- 

 proved recipe, for elaborate operations on the morrow, 

 while finger and thumb might have destroyed them all 

 in a short time, I am always reminded of the story of 

 the man who was vending some nostrum for the destruc- 

 tion of certain nameless parasites. When the " directions 



