102 
INSECTICIDES 
VICK’S GARDEN AND FLORAL GUIDE 
PLANT ENEMIES AND 
No one should attempt to garden these days without a good syringe and a 
supply of various insecticides. Not only do we have to make a continuous and 
determined fight to secure good fruits and vegetables, but the plant enemies 
have also invaded our flower gardens, and many of our most popular and once 
easily grown flowers are now rarely seen in perfection. The Rose, especially, 
is a favorite victim of many insects and fungous diseases. One of the most 
dreaded of all is the fungus known as the black spot. To successfully combat 
this plague requires prompt and thorough treatment. Bordeaux mixture is the 
remedy, and the plants should be thoroughly sprayed with it before the leaves 
start in the spring, and once or twice every week thereafter during the entire 
growing season • using care to destroy all diseased leaves. 
The Cosmos borer is very destructive to Cosmos, Dahlias, and Asters, fre¬ 
quently destroying all the plants, or so damaging them as to cause them to 
produce very inferior flowers. To deal with this pest, take one level teaspoon¬ 
ful Paris green to three gallons of water, and pour around the base of the stalk 
so as to soak the ground for two or three inches deep, commencing when the 
plants arc only about a foot high, and repeating the application once every 
week until the plant is about grown. 
The black flower beetle is a most disgusting and troublesome pest, and seems 
to be spreading over the country. It resembles the common blister beetle— 
indeed, is a species of blister beetle—but it is smaller and jet black in color. It 
feeds on the open flowers of the Hollyhock, Aster, and a few otheis, but those 
mentioned are their favorite food. One bug will in a little while disfigure and 
utterly ruin the finest flower. When disturbed they drop to the ground, and[the 
best way to get rid of them is to take a shallow pan of water, into which a little 
kerosene has been poured, and gather the bugs into it by shaking the flowers 
gently over the pan. The kerosene will kill them instantly. One should look 
the plants over twice each day, while any bugs are to be found. 
Plant Louse, or Green Fly—The little greenish insect which frequently 
infests house plants. It is called a fly because in one stage of its existence it 
has wings. Usually it is seen in its wingless state as a louse. In greenhouses 
the insects arc commonly destroyed by filling the house with tobacco smoke. 
With a few house plants this can be done by placing them in a box nearly tight, 
and burning therein tobacco or tobacco stems. We recommend Ivory Soap, 
dissolved in hot water to the consistency of soft soap. Use two heaping table* 
spoonfuls to one gallon of water, and dip the plants in the solution or apply 
with a syringe. One of the best materials is Sulpho-Tobacco Soap, used in 
solution and syringed on the plants. Whatever remedy is employed, after a 
few hours syringe the plants with clear water. 
Chrysanthemum Louse—Tobacco smoke is the best remedy. 
Mealy Bug—A little whitish mass, like cotton in appearance. Sometimes 
found on greenhouse and house plants, especially those with hard wood, such 
as Oleander, Olca fragrans, Chinese Hibiscus, etc. Go over the plants and 
touch each insect with a small brush dipped in whisky or alcohol. Or make a 
solution of Whale Oil Soap—one ounce of soap to two quarts of warm water, 
and syringe the plants. 
Red Spider—A very minute insect. Breeds only where the air is hot and 
dry. Remedy, less heat and more moisture in the atmosphere, and spray_or 
syringe the plants frequently with clear water, or use Ivory Soap solution. 
Rose Hopper, or Thrips—A small yellowish-white insect on the under 
sides of the leaves of Rose bushes, sucking the juices from the leaves and 
causing them to turn yellow. Whale Oil Soap solution syringed on so as to 
reach the under sides of the leaves is one of the best remedies. 
Rose Slugs—Slugs nearly a half inch long, of a dark green color, usually 
feeding on the upper sides of the leaves. Syringe with Whale Oil Soap solution, 
or with clear water, and then dust on powdered white hellebore. 
Angle Worms—The common earth-worm is sometimes troublesome in pots 
of plants, injuring the roots, and making the soil compact and heavy. They 
can be dislodged by saturating the soil with lime water. Dissolve half a peck 
of (iuick lime in a tub, using about two pails of water. When the lime is slaked 
and settled, pour off carefully the clear water, and with this saturate the soil of 
the infested pots. The worms will come to the surface and can then be removed. 
Scale Insects—There is a great variety of these insects which infest 
plants with woody or hard stems, even the hardy fruit trees and grape vines, 
and the maples and other forest trees have their special kinds. They should 
always be watched for on ferns and palms and other woody plants in the win¬ 
dow or greenhouse. When one has but a few pot plants which are infested it 
is best to remove the scale by pushing it off with the point of a knife or the 
blunt end of a needle, and afterwards syringing the plants with soapsuds and 
then with clear water. To clear them from trees, use kerosene emulsion and 
brush with a stiff brush. 
Cabbage Worms and Cabbage Lice—Vick’s Excelsior Insect Extermi¬ 
nator, applied with a bellows, will destroy these pests. 
Striped Cucumber Beetle—Yellow beetle with black stripes, which feeds 
on the young leaves of Cucumbers, Squashes, and Melons. Dryland plaster 
and dry air-slaked lime, and also plaster mixed with kerosene, are used to pre¬ 
vent the ravages of this insect. Apply the remedy in the morning, while the 
dew is on the plants, and be sure to get the powder on the under as well as the 
upper side of the leaves. 
Squash Bug —A large black bug with an offensive smell. The Excelsior 
Insect Exterminator, applied with a bellows, will prevent this insect's work. 
The plaster and kerosene mixture mentioned above is also valuable in this case. 
Squish Vine Root-borer—A preventive is saltpetre and water—one ounce 
of saltpetre to one gallon of water. Pour the solution on the soil about the plants 
soon after the young plants have come up, and repeat the operation two or three 
days after intervals of four or five days. If the preventive measure has been 
neglected, the presence of the borer will be known by the wilting of the plants. 
In that case the plants can be saved by cutting out the borers. The insect lays 
its eggs at the neck or crown of the plant, just at the surface of the ground, and 
here the larvm hatches out and bores into the stem, moving downwards. A dis¬ 
colored spot indicates the entrance to the channel. Commence there, and lay it 
open downwards until.the borer is found. Afterwards draw the soil up about 
the root and stem. • 
\ 
HOW TO FIGHT THEM 
Potato Beetle—Use Paris green mixed in water or in common land plaster 
or flour—i pound of Paris green can be mixed with 30 pounds of flour, or the 
same quantity with 100 pounds of plaster. The mixture should be very thor¬ 
oughly made, stirring the materials together until they are evenly combined 
throughout. Apply with a dredging box when the foliage is moist with dew or 
after a shower. The Paris green is very commonly used mixed with water and 
applied with a spraying apparatus. In this way 1 pound is sufficient for a barrel 
of water—45 to 50 gallons. As the powder is not dissolved in the water it should 
be kept constantly stirred to keep it from settling to the bottom of the vessel 
London purple is another form of arsenic, and can be used in the same manner 
as the Paris green, but in smaller proportional quantities. 
Radish Maggot—A heavy dressing of wood ashes over the bed after the 
seed has been sown will prevent in a great measure the attack of the insect. 
Flea Beetle—The little black jumping beetle which attacks the young plants 
in the seed-leaf of 1 urnips, Radish, Cabbage, Cauliflower, etc. Scatter air- 
slaked lime, ashes, plaster, or tobacco dust, over the plants when they arc moist 
with dew or rain. The insects usually leave the plants after they are out of 
their first leaves. 
Currant Worm—Dredge the foliage with white hellebore, Veratrum album. 
Codlin Moth—This insect, so destructive to the apple, can be killed or held 
in check by spraying the trees soon after they are out of bloom, and when the 
fruit has just formed, with Paris green, at the rate of 1 pound to 200 or 250 gal¬ 
lons of water. The larger amount of water can be used if it is kept well stirred. 
Curculio—The most satisfactory method to pursue with this insect is to jar 
the trees early in the morning while the insects are comparatively dormant, or 
at least, inactive. They will fall down and can be caught on a sheet placed 
underneath the tree. The jarring should be continued from the time the fruit 
sets until the stone is formed. 
Mildew of Roses, Chrysanthemums, and Other Plants.—Flour of Sul¬ 
phur applied with a bellows is one of the best and simplest remedies. 
Mildew and Black Rot of Grapes, Scab of Apple and Pear.—Use Bor¬ 
deaux mixture made as directed herewith. If vine mildew or grape rot is 
feared, spray the vines with this mixture soon after the leaves start out, and 
again just after the fruit has set. 
I* or apple and pear scab and cracking of pears, spray the trees in spring, before 
the leaves come .out, with the simple solution of sulphate of copper in forty 
gallons of water. As soon as the leaves come out, and before blossoming, spray 
again, but this time with the Bordeaux mixture. Immediately after the blos- 
soms have fallen spray with it again. At this second spraying, after blooming, 
mix Paris green with the Bordeaux at the rate of one pound to 200 gallons of 
water, or three ounces to a barrel of forty gallons. This will destroy the larvaj 
of the codlin moth at the same time as the scab fungus. 
Potato Rot or Late Blight.—Use the Bordeaux mixture, as prepared 
above, and spray the plants with it on the first appearance of the blight, and 
repeat the operation twice more at intervals of ten days. 
State of New York Department of Agriculture Formulas. 
Paris Green. 
Paris green.. pound Water.150 to 300 gallons 
a 1 / i hlS ™ lxture is to be used u Pon fruit trees, 1 pound of quicklime should be 
added, and repeated applications will injure most foliage, unless the lime is 
used. Paris green and Bordeaux mixture can be applied together with 
Perfect safety. Use at the rate of 4 ounces of the arsenites to 50 gallons of the 
mixture. The action of neither is weakened, and the Paris green loses all 
caustic properties. For insects which chew. 
Normal or 1.6 Per Cent. Bordeaux Mixture. 
Copper Sulphate (Blue vitriol).6 pounds 
Quicklime (good stone lime)., pounds 
Water.50 g a n ons 
Dissolve the copper sulphate by putting it in a bag of coarse cloth and hang¬ 
ing this in a vessel containing 4 to 6 gallons of water. Use ah earthen or 
wooden vessel. After the copper sulphate is dissolved, dilute with water to 25 
gallons. Slake the lime and add 25 gallons of water. Mix the two and keep 
thoroughly stirred while using. If the mixture is to be used on peach foliage, it 
is advisable to add 2 pounds of lime to the above formula. When applied to 
such plants as carnations or cabbages, it will adhere better if a pound of hard 
soap be dissolved in hot water and added to the mixture. For rots, moulds, 
mildews, and all fungous diseases. 
Iron Sulphate and Sulphuric Acid Solution. 
atcr (h°t). . p art3 
Iron sulphate.. . much as the water will dissolve 
Sulphuric acid (commercial). . part 
I he solution should be prepared just before using. Add the acid to the 
crystals, and then pour on the water. Valuable for grape anthracnose, the 
dormant vines being treated by means of sponges or brushes. 
Ammoniacal Copper Carbonate. 
Copper carbonate, 5 oz. Ammonia (26° Bcaum6), 3 pints. Water, 45 gallons. 
Make a paste of the copper carbonate with a little water. Dilute the ammo¬ 
nia with 7 or 8 volumes of water. Add the paste to the diluted ammonia, and 
stir until dissolved. Add enough water to make 45 gallons. Allow it to settle, 
and use only the clear blue liquid. This mixture loses strength on standing. 
Copper Sulphate Solution. 
Copper sulphate. ...... 1 pound Water.. 15 to 25 gallons 
Dissolve the copper sulphate in the water, when it is ready for use. This 
should never be applied to foliage, but must be used before the buds break. 
For peaches and nectarines, use 25 gallons of water. For fungous diseases. 
Tobacco Water. 
This solution may be prepared by placing tobacco stems in a water-tight ves¬ 
sel, and then covering them with hot water. Allow to stand several hours, 
dilute the liquor from 3 to § times and apply. For soft bodied insects, 
