GENERAL REMARKS ON INSECTS. 



57 



a light, partially covered with a common bell-glass besmeared with. oil. 

 All the small moths are directly attracted by the light, fly towards it, 

 and in their attempts to get at the light, are either caught by the glutin- 

 ous sides of the bell-glass, or fall into the basin of oil beneath, and 

 in either case soon perish. M. Adouin applied this to the destruction 

 of the py ralis, a moth that is very troublesome in the French vineyards ; 

 with two hundred of these lights in a vineyard of four acres, and in a 

 single night, 30,000 moths were killed and found dead on or about 

 the vessels. By continuing his process through the season, it was esti- 

 mated that he had destroyed female moths sufficient to have pro- 

 duced a progeny of over a million of caterpillars. In our orchards 

 myriads of insects may be destroyed by lighting small bonfires of shav- 

 ings or any refuse brush ; and in districts where the apples are much 

 worm-eaten, if repeated two or three nights at the proper season, this, is 

 a very efficient and cheap mode of getting rid of the moth which causes 

 so much mischief. Dr. Harris, knowing how important it is to destroy 

 the caterpillar in the moth state, has recommended flambeaux, made of 

 tow wound round a stake and dipped in tar, to be stuck in the fruit-gar- 

 den at night and lighted. Thousands of moths will find a speedy death, 

 even in the short time which these flambeaux are burning. The melon- 

 bug may be extirpated by myriads in the same way. 



A simple and most effectual mode of ridding the fruit-garden of 

 insects of every description, which we recommend as a general extirpator 

 suited to all situations, is the following : — Take a number of common 

 bottles, the wider mouthed the better, and fill them about half full of 

 ,a mixture of water, molasses, and vinegar. Suspend these among the 

 branches of trees and in various parts of the garden. In a fortnight 

 they will be found full of dead insects of every description not too large 

 to enter bottles — wasps, flies, beetles, slugs, grubs, and a great variety 

 of others. The bottles must now be emptied and the liquid renewed. 

 A zealous amateur of our acquaintance caught last season in this way 

 more than three bushels of insects of various kinds ; and, what is more 

 satisfactory, preserved his garden almost entirely against their attacks in 

 any shape. 



The assistance of birds in destroying insects should be duly estimated 

 by the fruit-grower. The quantity of eggs and insects in various states 

 devoured annually by birds, when they are encouraged in gardens, is 

 truly surprising. It is true that one or two species of these, as the ring- 

 tail, annoy us by preying upon the earlier cherries, but even taking this 

 into account, we are inclined to believe that we can much better spare a 

 reasonable share of a few fruits than dispense with the good services of 

 birds in ridding us of an excess of insects. 



The most serviceable birds are the common sparrows, the wren, the 

 red-breast, and in short most of the birds of this class. All these birds 

 should be encouraged to build nests and inhabit the fruit-garden, and 

 this may most effectually be done by not allowing a gun to be fired within 

 its boundaries. The introduction of hedges or live fences greatly pro- 

 motes the domestication of birds, as they afford an admirable shelter for 

 their nests. Our own gardens are usually much more free from insects 

 than those a mile or two distant, and we attribute this in part to our prac- 

 tice of encouraging birds, and to the thorn and arbor vitas hedges grow- 

 ing here, and which are greatly resorted to by those of the feathered tribe 

 which are the greatest enemies of the insect race. 



