FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
67 
means of provoking a discussion that will result in good. In 
treating the subject before us, I shall call to my aid a special 
bulletin of the Louisiana State Experiment Station, which 
treats of insects injurious and beneficial that infest the citrus in 
that state, Florida and California. Every grower should have 
this work, which I presume may be obtained by addressing 
H. C. Newsom, Commissioner of Agriculture, Baton Rouge. 
INSECTS. 
One of the most troublesome of which is the Florida red 
scale (Aspdiotus Ficus Ashmead). It is round, ol a choco¬ 
late color with a red spot in the center, a little less than a 
sixteenth of an inch in diameter They breed with wonder¬ 
ful rapidity and spread over a grove in a very short space of 
time. It has been aptly described as “the most devilish of 
all scale insects,” and it seems to come in a night. I believe 
it the most difficult to destroy. The adult red scale seems 
almost invulnerable, and the best time to fight them is when 
hatching, almost anything in the way of an insecticide will 
kill them at this time. They seem to be most active about 
the first of April and the latter part of August. The oyster 
shell scale (Mytilaspis Pomorum Bouche) seems to be the 
most common in Florida, and the least destructive. I have 
found that they could generally be disposed of by giving the 
tree some fertilizer. Another, the barnacle scale ( Ceroplas - 
tes Floridensis ), as his name implies, has the appearance of a 
barnacle, is white with a slight pinkish tinge, and when 
crushed exudes a liquid that has the appearance of blood. 
This scale is most otten seen on young trees, and may be easily 
destroyed by a few applications of soapsuds. This insect 
is about three thirty seconds of an inch in diameter. Aley- 
rodes Citrifolii is a scale frequently seen on the leaves and 
stems of our trees, and appears as little white dots, some¬ 
times almost completely covering the leaves and small twigs. 
This insect finally hatches into a small white fly or miller, its 
wings having a delicate purplish tinge. It is often very 
troublesome, and wherever smut fungus is found this scale 
generally accompanies it. Smut fungus has the appe irance 
of soot, and a tree affected looks as though it had been liber¬ 
ally dusted with soot. 
No doubt many of you have noticed numbers of your 
.oranges, otherwise good, with a little hole eaten through the 
oil cells to the white portion of the peel. I found the little 
villain that does the work. There will be seen a little pointed 
,cocoon, yery ragged in appearance, attached to the orange, 
and has for its inhabitant a small black worm. What form 
..of miller or fly it hatches into I do not know. The cocoons 
