110 



MEANS FOR ARRESTING THE PROGRESS OP 



loosening the naked soil serves as a trap for the cockchafer, covering that soil 

 with straw is found to act as a defence against them ; and hence one of the 

 principal uses of mulching in the rose-gardens and tree-nurseries in the 

 neighbourhood of Paris. 



355. Catching the Perfect Insect.^ so as to prevent it from depositing its 

 eggs. — Though this cannot be done to any great extent with -winged insects, 

 such as the butterfly, moth, and some flies, yet it may be employed in tlie 

 case of the cockchafer, the rose-beetle, &c., which may be collected by 

 children ; and in the case of wingless insects, such as wood-lice, ants, and 

 earwigs, which may be enticed > into hiding-places by food, or by other 

 means. Hay, mixed with crumbs of bread, and tied up in little bundles, — 

 or, what is better, stufl'ed into empty flower-pots or boxes, — will attract wood- 

 lice ; and the material may be taken out daily, and the insects destroyed, 

 after which it may be replaced, occasionally adding some fresh gratings of 

 cheese. Ants may be entrapped by sweetened water put in narrow-necked 

 bottles and sunk in the soil ; or, better, by moist sugar, mixed with hay, 

 and put loosely into flower-pots in the same manner as for wood-lice. 

 Earwigs may be caught by placing hollow bean-stalks in their haunts, to 

 ■which they will retire in the day-time, when they can be shaken out of the 

 stalks into a vessel of water. A simple and effectual trap for both wood-lice 

 and earwigs is composed of two pieces of the bark of any soft rough-barked 

 tree, such as the elm, placed inside to inside, so as to leave in the middle 

 between them a very slight separation, tying the two pieces of bark together 

 by a wand or twig, part of which is left as a handle, and laying the trap 

 where the insects abound. They will retire between the pieces in the 

 day-time, which can be quickly lifted up by the twig and shaken over a 

 vessel of water. No bait is required for tliis trap, the more tender part of 

 the bark being eaten by the wood-lice and the earwig. The same bark-trap 

 will also serve for millepedes, beetles, and, to a certain extent, for ants. 

 The most effective mode of destroying ants in frames or hothouses is by 

 placing toads in them. One toad will be sufficient for a frame or a hot- 

 house. The toad places himself by the side of an ant-path, and by stretching 

 out his tongue as the insects pass him, draws them in and devours them. Mr. 

 Westwood suggests to us, that, where ants abound, it is most advisable to 

 watch for the period when the winged males and females swarm ; when this 

 is perceived, they should be destroyed by beating them down with the spade, 

 and turning up the nest. By this means the coupling of the sexes is pre- 

 vented, as well as the formation of fresh colonies. 



350. Destroying the Perfect Insect. — This is effected in the open air by the 

 use of washes or decoctions in the case of the aphides ; or, in the case of 

 the wasp, by hot Avater being poured into its nest, or sulphur being burnt 

 in it ; or by pouring salt and water into ants' nests ; or by lighting a fire over 

 the holes of burrowing insects, &c. In plant-houses, the perfect insect, such 

 as the red spider, the green fly, &c., is destroyed by fumigation with tobacco- 

 smoke, accompanied at the same time. by steaming, which is found to con- 

 dense the oil of the tobacco on the leaves of the plants. The perfect insect 

 is also destroyed in hothouses by the sublimation of sulphur, which may be 

 mixed with lime or loam, and washed over the heating flues and pipes, or 

 placed on a hot stone or plate, or in a chafing-dish. Dusting the leaves of 

 plants under glass with sulphur, in a state of powder, is found to destroy 

 the red spider. Beetles, wood-lice, ants, and other crawling wingless 



