J anuary i, iSgx.] 
THG TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
489 
INSECT AND OTHER PESTS: 
WHY THEY EXIST, 
IMMUNITY OP TEA IN CEYLON FROBI ENEMIES— POOR 
COFFEE — CURB FOR GREEN BUG — PUBLICATIONS OF 
THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT OP NEW SOUTH 
WALES — REMEDIES FOR NOXIOUS INSECTS — RUST ON 
WHEAT AND FRUIT TREES — LADYBIRDS AS ENEMIES 
TO BUGS — LOCAL APPLICATIONS. 
Nanuoya, Nov. 27th. 
In Miss Ormerod’s works, in similar books 
published in America, in Dr. Maskel’s book on 
scale insects in New Zealand, in a multitude of books 
of the same nature, and in the agricultural and 
horticultural papers and scientific reports which 
reach us from all parts of the world, but especially 
those from India, Australia and the United States, 
I have read carefully and noted information about 
insects injurious to cultivated plants and insecti- 
cides, including in the latter category insects 
which prey upon predaceous insects, such as “ the 
ladybird 
(“ Little fleas have lesser fleas to bite ’em”) 
so much indeed as to cause me to consider the 
mystery of such pests in nature as phylloxera and 
bugs, helopeltis and red spider, and hemileia and 
red rust, as a mystery only second to the existence 
of snakes vested with venom. I suppose the mys- 
tery is to be solved only by reference to the moral 
revolution which called forth the declaration : — 
“Thorns and briers shall the earth bring forth, and 
in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” 
If there were no difficulties to encounter or over- 
come, men would either sink into the slough of 
indolence, or imitate the pride of him who said, 
“ Behold great Babylon which I have built.” At 
any rate, we have to fight the adverse circum- 
stances of our natural surroundings, as well 
as to enjoy their favourable characteristics. As 
yet at least, we in Ceylon have reason to be 
thankful that our new staple production, tea, 
should enjoy so much of immunity from insect 
or fungoid enemies. But “ the enemies of the coffee 
tree ” seem bent on pursuing their victim to ex- 
tinction. The latest and worst foe is “green bug”; 
and in answer to the demand for a remedy, I feel 
bound to repeat, as the outcome of my reading, 
experience and reflection, that applications should 
be used specially calculated to smother the insects 
to death. No doubt powerful chemical agents, 
especially poisons, have their use, but danger to 
human life as well as vegetable vitality is involved 
in their application, and it really seems a question 
whether they cannot be dispensed with. Is it not 
a fact that the value of a mixture of grease and 
sulphur as a cure for the itch-insect consists in 
the smothering effect of the grease and but little 
in the actively destructive power of the sulphur ? 
I have just been reading with great interest some 
valuable publioations issued by the newly created 
Agricultural Department of New South Wales, of 
I which the Hon. Sydney Smith, M.P., is Minister, and 
I Mr. H. 0. L. Anderson, Director. Both have gone to 
j work with great energy and intelligence to collect and 
diffuse information, summoning for this purpose the 
leading agriculturists and horticulturists of the 
il colony to a conterenoe, at which valuable papers 
wore read and discussel, differing views and 
experiences compared and conclusions arrived at. 
il Remedies for noxious insects received much 
I attention, and I have been much struck with the 
ij simplicity as well as the alleged efficacy of some of 
I, the suggestions offered as the following out of 
i experience obtained. One practical orohardist stated 
that he kept his orange and other trees clear of 
scale insects by an application of nothing more 
(12 
potent than diluted starch : diluted but of such a 
consistency as to form a crust over the insects and 
which remained over their holies long enough to 
secure their death from suffocation. It would seem 
as if something more potent than starch or flour 
paste would be required to penetrate the body of the 
parent scale so as to reach the thousands of insects 
of several generations beneath, but the testimony 
was the starch sufficed, and, therefore, I advise a 
trial of rice flour, either alone or mixed with common 
gum (dammer ?) or some viscid substance, the 
mixture to be sprayed or diffused by coir brushes or 
brooms, on to cofiee bushes, and orange or other 
trees effected by bug, brown or green. In the case 
of coffee bushes, when not in fruit of course such 
arsenical poisons as London purple and Paris green 
can be applied, with much more safety to human 
life at least, than would be the case with orange 
trees bearing fruit, edible vegetables or tea leaves. 
Another simple recommendation was the use, as an 
application, of a decoction of gum (euoalypt) leaves ; 
and an orohardist asserted that he had kept his 
trees free of “ scale,” by mulching them with gum 
leaves, which, when decayed were dug into the 
ground at the roots of the tree with good fertilizing 
as well as bug-resisting effects. The Australian 
eucalypts, especially blue gums, are now so common 
in Ceylon, that a decoction of the leaves and the 
leaves themselves as a mulch, that is as a covering 
for the surface around coSee, orange or other trees, 
can easily be tried.* If by such simple means 
success is not attained, then the more potent 
remedies (generally poisons) can be resorted to. 
A large proportion of such remedies were discussed 
at the Sydney Conference, in the light of local 
and general experience in Australia, as well 
as the large experience obtained and the compre- 
hensive information collected in the United States, 
especially in Florida and California. The Codling 
Moth {Carpocapsa pomonella) so destructive to 
apples and pears especially formed the subject of 
the first elaborate paper published by the Depart- 
ment to which we have referred. Another apple 
pest, Cacacia postvittana, was also noticed, the 
larvae of which have been found on several native 
plants, including Grevillea robus/a. Birds, lizards 
and frogs are enemies of these moths, and with 
trap bands of canvas, the spraying of Paris green 
or London purple is recommended, in the proportion 
of 1 lb. of the poison to 100 gallons of water. The 
application of the arsenical solution is, of course, 
made when the fruits are quite small. What applies 
to apple trees applies to coffee, only that it is the 
leaves and twigs of the latter which are chiefly 
attacked. In a paper on rust in wheat, it is stated 
that last year the loss of farmers in Australia 
from this pest, so \ik& Hemileia vastatrix in general 
appearance, was equal to £2, ,500,000 sterling. No 
such cereal as rust proof wheat has been discovered, 
but some kinds are oonstitu'.ionaify able to resist 
the pest, and it was recommended that wheat 
should follow other crops, such as maize, sorghum, 
&c. Of course no such remedies apply to plants 
perennially in the soil. For peach rust, the washing 
of the trees with ferrous sulphate (green vitriol 
or copperas,) 1 lb. to 4 gallons water is recom- 
mended ; also the dressing of the soil with the 
same substance, J lb. for a tree, finely powdered, 
or dissolved in 2 gallons water. This poison can 
be applied to coft’ee trees, — with caution, of course. 
For the maize moth and the cotton worm, pyrethrum 
* It is quite possible that a decoction of our coarse 
hill lemon grass, mana, might be efficacious as well as 
a mulching of the grass. In the old day* of black 
bug, I remember wisps of mana grass being tied on tho 
ootfeo stems. 
