1Aprin, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 267 
FRUIT PESTS, 
The pests attacking fruit and fruit trees are principally of two kinds— 
lirst, those caused by insects ; and secondly, those caused by microscopic fungi. 
There is another class of diseases, probably due to bacterial agency, but of this 
class yery little is known, and no remedies other than keeping the trees in 
health by proper manuring, drainage, and cultivation can be suggested. Insect 
pests and fungus pests require, as a rule, different treatment, as remedies which 
are efficacious in the case of an insect might not be of any use whatever in the 
case of a fungus and vice versd ; hence it is of the greatest importance that 
fruit-growers should make themselves acquainted with the various pests attack- 
Ing their fruit or trees, so they can at once tell the cause of the injury 
and know what remedy to apply. If at any time a grower has the slightest 
doubt as to whether a disease is caused by an insect or a fungus, then I 
strongly advise him to send specimens of the disease to the Department of 
Agriculture for identification, as this will prevent him from applying wrong 
remedies. : 
INSECT PESTS. 
Insects damage fruit and fruit trees in various ways; consequently 
different classes of insects require different treatment. 
1. Insects Destroying Foliage, §c.—A. large number of insects—such as 
caterpillars of all kinds, leaf-eating beotles, crickets, grasshoppers, cut-worms, 
&¢e.—do considerable damage by eating the leaves of the tree, skin of the fruit, 
or bark of small branches. They actually devour their food, not merely suck 
It; so that if you poison the food on which they are living they will eat the 
Poison and die. ‘The best remedy, therefore, for all this class of destructive 
Insects is to spray the trees or plants on which they are feeding with arsenical 
Poisons, such as Paris green, London purple, or arsenate of lead. These 
Poisons are either used alone or they may be used in conjunction with lime 
or with Bordeaux mixture; the latter being the better plan when the trees 
faiuire spraying for both insects and fungi, as one spraying answers for 
oth, 
2. Insects Living by Suction.—Yhese insects do a very large amount of 
damage, and unless they are taken in hand in time are often somewhat difficult 
to keep in check. All aphides, scale insects, and plant-sucking bugs, such as 
the bronzy and green orange bugs, are included in this section; and the 
remedies used are those that destroy the insects by actually touching them, or 
Y so covering them over that they cannot breathe, or by suffocating them by 
Means of poisonous gases. This last method is known as the gas treatment, 
and is fully described later on. Arsenical poisons are of very little use for 
these insects, as they only suck the skin ‘or leaves, but do not eat them. The 
est sprays to use for these insects are resin washes: either a simple resin 
Soap wash in the case of aphides, or a wash consisting of oil, resin, and caustic 
Soda or caustic potash for destroying scale insects, kerosene emulsion, either 
used by itself or in conjunction with resin or a starch solution, and extracts 
of tobacco and nicotine used in conjunction with whale-oil soap. 
_ 8. Insects Boring into the Fruit.—Vhis class contains some of the worst 
‘sect pests, such as the Codlin Moth, Fruit Fly, Yellow Peach Moth, fruit- 
oring weevils ; and these insects have all to be treated more or less differently. 
fowever, there is one general remedy for all this class of pests, and that is the 
Careful gathering daily of all fallen and wormy fruit, especcally carly in the 
Season ; such fruit to be boiled and fed to pigs. In addition to this, the other 
"emedies that I recommend ‘are as follow :—For the Codlin Moth: Spraying 
With Paris green, 1 Ib. to 160 gallons of water, just as the blossoms fall, repeat- 
ig the spraying in ten days’ time; gathering and destruction of all ‘infested 
“uit; bandaging the trees as soon as the first crop of larve leave. the fruit, 
the bandages to be removed and all larve destroyed at least once a week. 
The best way to destroy the larve is to dip the bandages into boiling 
Water; don’t crush the larve on the bandages, or the dead insects will attract 
