DESTRUCTION OF INSECTS. 
279 
A decoction of elder-leaves, made by boiling a peck of leaves 
in a gallon of water till the liquor is black, is an effectual means 
of removing caterpillars from gooseberry or other trees ; it may 
also be applied to cabbages, or other culinary vegetables, but 
should afterwards be well washed off, as it leaves a strong bitter 
taste. 
That destructive little pest, the red spider, has given occasion 
for volumes of writing as to a certain means of eradication, but 
the only really effectual preventive to their attacks is a damp 
atmosphere ; in cases where they have effected a lodgment, an 
application of steam twice a day should be kept up till they are 
dispersed : it may be said that sometimes vapour of this kind 
will commit injury, but it must be remembered, that the insects 
are continually and increasingly doing so. 
Sulphur sprinkled on the pipes or flues, when they are hot, has 
been recommended, but to be of any detriment to the insects, it 
must be used in such quantity as to be also injurious to the plants, 
and it is well known that an overdose will take off every leaf in 
the house. 
Earwigs and woodlice are among the worst of nocturnal depre¬ 
dators in a garden, and are only to be checked by catching and 
condemning to actual execution; they feed chiefly at night, and 
retire to some secluded place on the approach of day, anything 
which offers them the desired seclusion may be used as a trap, 
such as hollow sticks, a small flowerpot reversed on the end of a 
stake, pans filled with moss, and a variety of other means which 
will suggest themselves, may be employed. 
Ants are sometimes annoying, not so much on account of what 
they destroy, as from their habit of intruding where they are least 
desired. A bone placed in a basin, and sunk on a level with their 
track, will catch thousands : in the garden they may frequently 
be observed journeying to and fro all in one path ; if a hole be 
made with a stick, and a phial placed in it, so that the neck is level 
with the surface, numbers may be taken, for they never turn 
aside, but walk directly into the trap. 
E. D. P. 
