52 



THE OECHAED AKD rETJIT GAEDE1S-. 



escape by dropping down by a thread. Througboufe 

 May watch for rolled up leaves and destroy them as 

 they appear. It changes into a brown, shining chrysalis, 

 rolled in leaves, which should also be sought for and 

 destroyed. The moth is a tiny brown thing, which 

 deposits its eggs upon the branches. 



The ripening fruit upon our trees has as inveterate 

 enemies as the trees themselves. 



Earwigs, ForJiculcB auricularis, eat into peaches, plums, 

 and other luscious fruits in the night, and in the day 

 hide away in dark recesses. The way to trap them is 

 to reverse crab or lobster claws, small pots, or conical 

 screws of paper, on the tops of sticks set in the ground 

 near the places they frequent. The earwigs crawl into 

 the dark recesses of the traps, and should be shaken out 

 and killed every morning. They have wings, and use 

 them at times, so that anything to destroy them placed 

 round the stem of the tree is of very little use. 



Slugs and snails destroy choice fruit by eating it, and 

 by crawling over it, leaving their slime, which by its 

 glossy trail gives evidence where they have been. Hand- 

 picking is good in the case of both, especially of snails, 

 which can be hunted for and found in cracks in the 

 walls, behind stones, and in such like out-of-the-way 

 corners. Both snails and slugs are night-feeders, retiring 

 and hiding by day. 



Lime and salt destroy slugs. In the evening water 

 the earth round the tree with lime-water, then strew 

 lime over the ground, and at the end of a week give 

 a surface-dressing of salt, allowing a bushel to a rood 

 of land. "Wall fruit trees infested with slugs may be 

 syringed with lime-water. Cabbage leaves dipped in 

 greasy water, or little piles of brewer's trains, will attract 

 them, when they may be caught and killed. Continual 

 stirring of the earth does good ; and they may be kept 

 off wall fruit by strewing lime along the top and 

 along the bottom of the wall, and renewing it once a 

 week. 



The figure-of-eight moth, Episeona coerula-cepJiala, in 

 its caterpillar form destroys the bloom of apples, pears, 



