HOW TO CONTROL GLADIOLUS THRIP. 
The gladiolus thrip, a tiny sucking insect that made its appearance in the east a 
few years ago, has now spread to all parts of the country, including the Pacific coast. 
The thrip feeds on the juices of the plant, and where the infestation is severe they 
sc damage the buds that they do not open properly. The buds and bud sheath look very 
much like they had boon scorched. 
Government experts seem to be agreed that the thrip does not winter ovor out-doors, 
but are only carried over the winter on the bulbs in storage. It is a very easy matter 
to kill all thrips and eggs on your bulbs, so that you can be sure that you will not 
be bothered with them next summer, unless your careless neighbor foils to treat his 
and gives you a start during the growing season. The adult thrip will fly several hun¬ 
dred feet- from one planting to another. 
The following is a sure-fire method to kill thrips and eggs in storage: Place 
your bulbs, not too deeply, in boxes or in paper sacks, and add to them napthaicne 
flakes (crushed moth-balls will do, if they are easier to got) at the rate of about 
one ounce to each hundred large bulbs. If in boxes, place a paper tightly over the 
top to confine the fumes, and if in paper sacks, close the mouth of the sack. Place 
in a fairly warm room for about throe weeks, then shako out the napthaicne and store 
bulbs for the rest of the winter in a cool place, about 40 degrees if possible. 
Then in the spring at planting time, if you wont to make doubly sure of the thrip, 
and ns a fine disease preventative as woll, give your bulbs either the lye treatment 
of the bichloride of mercury treatment. For the lye treatment, use one can of ordinary 
lye to about 20 to 25 gallons of water and soak the bulbs or bulb lots for about eight- 
hours, - longer will do no harm. For the bichloride treatment, use one ounce of bich¬ 
loride of mercury to 7-g- gallons of water and soak bulbs for about eight hours. Dis¬ 
solve the bichloride in a quart of hot water before adding to the cold water. Use this 
solution only in wooden, glass, or earthenware containers. It should be handled with 
care as it is a deadly poison if taken internally. 
And dont be content with just treating your own bulbs, - sec that your neighbors 
and members of your flower clubs do the same. If all the gladiolus bulbs that are 
planted next spring, would bo treated as mentioned above, it would likely bo the end. 
of the gladiolus thrip. And dont think that just because you saw no damage on your 
glads last summer that there cannot bo any thrips on YOUxi bulbs. A stray thrip or two 
may have flown, into your patch late in the fall and now be merrily feeding, and multi¬ 
plying, underneath the husks of your choicest- bulbs. 
In my own bulb houses I am using Cvanogas as a fumigant instoad of the napthaicne 
flakes. Wc have thousands of square feet, of crate and shelf space crowded with million 
of bulbs, and the Cyanogas is more convenient to use for treatment r f large quantities. 
TH3 FAVCRIT3S FOR 1932 and 1933. 
While a list of the favorite varieties of any certain group of people, is not 
necessarily a list of the best varieties, including the new and little known ones, ib¬ 
is usually safe for the amateur to follow the choice of different gladiolus societies. 
Below are the favorite ton of the Washington Gladiolus Society for 1933, and of the 
American Gladiolus Society for 1932: 
ur p o 
lr, q 
!W 
riinuc t 
Picardy 
Betty Nuthall 
Dr F. 3. Bennett 
Coryphee 
1933 
Commander Kochi 
Pfitzcr's Triumph 
Inarm ora 
Mammoth White 
Albatros 
A.G.S. 1932 
Minuot 
Marmora 
Wo H. Phipps 
Betty Nuthall 
Picardy 
Dr F. L. Bennett 
Mrs Leon Douglas 
Pfit z e r 1 s Triunph 
Golden Dr am 
Mother Machrcc 
Awarded the American Gladiolus Society Silver Modal -1929-1330-1933 
Bronze Modal - 1931 - 1932 - 
RALPH J. POMMERT, 
Gladiolus Grower, 
PACIFIC, WASHINGTON. 
