THE GREEN-HOUSE. 



175 



decayed flower-stems of many of the UmhelUferce. 

 In these they enter for repose, and are easily shaken 

 out and destroyed. The ant is sometimes a very 

 troublesome insect in the green-house, and not very 

 readily subdued. Where their nests cannot be dug 

 out, or the inhabitants scalded or drowned by water, 

 hot or cold, we know of no mode better than wetting 

 the inside of a flower-pot with honey and milk, or 

 sugar and milk, and whitening it, covering the hole 

 at top with a sherd or tile. A number of the in- 

 sects will be attracted by the odour of the honey, 

 and enter to collect it and settle there, when the pot 

 may be lifted and dipped in a pail of hot water for a 

 moment, and then fresh anointed and replaced. Fly- 

 powder has also been tried for destroying ants in 

 hot-houses, and with considerable success : it does 

 not require to be moistened, but merely a few saucers 

 of it placed here and there near their haunts. In the 

 West Indies, ants are poisoned with arsenic and 

 sugar ; when one dies it is eaten by the others, who 

 die in their turn, and are eaten ; and thus a small 

 dose may destroy a large nest. 



Snails sometimes find their way into the green- 

 house, and do a good deal of mischief before it is 

 well known to what or to whom to attribute it. Their 

 time of committing their devastations is during nighty 

 and when day returns they bury themselves in the 

 soil, or settle on the dark side of pots. They eat 

 the leaves of most plants, and of some much more 

 than others. They are, however, easily eradicated, 



