May  20,  1397. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
437 
INSECT  INVASION. 
I  am  struck  (neither  dumb  nor  unable  to  write,  thank  God)  by  a  few 
words  in  “  VV.’a  ”  reply  to  the  “  distressed  correspondent  ”  suffering,  as 
who  does  not  at  this  season,  from  insect  invasion.  The  lines  are  these 
“A  shilling  spent  in  insecticides  early  in  the  season,  and  the  powder  or 
solution  applied  when  the  first  insect  is  seen,  or,  what  is  better,  before 
as  a  'prevention  (the  italics  are  mine),  will  effect  the  purpose  far  better 
than  can  be  accomplished  by  an  expenditure  of  20s.  after  the  shoots  are 
crowded  with  aphides.” 
The  distressed  correspondent  does  not  state  what  insect.  Of  course, 
he  or  she  ought  to  know  that  eggs  laid  in  the  autumn,  as  the  sun  in 
April  and  May  warms  them,  hatch,  and  the  influx  begins.  This  time,  as 
“  W.”  rightly  says,  is  the  time  for  action,  “  or  before.”  Now  supposing 
then  the  pest  to  be  aphides,  what  can  we  do  before?  Cleanliness  every¬ 
where  is  a  help,  but  in  greenhouses  it  is  not  a  time  of  year  when  you 
without  examining  why  it  is  so  ;  the  enemy  will  not  be  found  in  nine  casea 
out  of  ten  on  the  upper  surface  of  the  leaf,  but  underneath.  This  fact 
is  one  of  the  difficulties  in  applying  liquid  insecticides — it  does  not 
reach  the  enemy. 
In  the  house  the  presence  of  a  few  aphides  should  be  the  signal  for 
immediate  fumigation.  Personally,  I  have  found  nothing  to  equal  the 
XL  liquid  for  vapourising.  I  have  no  interest  in  recommending  it, 
other  than  to  assist  “  distressed  correspondents  ”  in  repelling  the  attacks 
of  the  aphis  tribe,  but  if  the  directions  are  strictly  followed  nothing,  in 
my  hands,  has  been  so  safe,  so  effective,  and  so  lasting  as  this.  Lately 
a  friend  came  to  my  house,  to  whose  gardener  I  had  given  some  plants, 
and  the  latter,  remarking  on  the  cleanliness  of  my  Cinerarias,  compli¬ 
mented  me.  I  gave  the  credit  to  the  XL,  where  indeed  it  was  due. 
“  Oh  !  ”  he  replied,  “  the  master  will  not  use  it,  it  is  bo  awfully  expen¬ 
sive.”  So  to  the  master  I  asked  why  he  did  not  use  it,  and  his  reply 
was  that  his  last  gardener  used  a  13  >.  bottleful  tor  one  house  1  This,  I 
Tig.  88.— GO-NbLhVAlOiiV  AT  WaLiON  LEA. 
■can  turn  out  your  plants  and  scrub  and  clean,  but  this  might  be  done 
later  in  the  autumn.  Will  that  rid  us  of  green,  brown,  blue,  and 
black  aphides  ?  I  trow  not.  What  are  the  eg  s  of  the  aphis  like  1  I, 
to  my  knowledge,  have  never  seen  any,  and  it  strikes  me  they  muBt  be 
very  minute  ;  hut  after  all,  as  far  as  the  aphis  is  concerned,  were  it  only  by 
eggs  hatching  that  these  pests  arrived,  they  would  be  fewer  by  myriads 
than  they  are  now.  Like  the  poor,  the  aphis  in  its  varied  forms 
'•  we  have  always  with  us.”  It  is  the  rapid  increase  that  the  female 
aphis  after  hatching  is  capable  of  by  that  process  of  disbudding  from 
itself  perfect  females,  equal  in  a  few  days  to  the  same  process  or  func¬ 
tion,  that  covers  our  plants  so  speedily,  and  that  permits  according  to 
the  naturalist  Reaumur,  who  watched  them  so  attentively,  the  female  to 
be  the  great  great  grandmother  of  these  myriads  during  her  own  life¬ 
time.  The  process  is  continually  going  on,  an!  it  alone  account*  for 
the  rapidity  with  which  a  shoot  that  has  a  female  on  it  to-day,  may  in 
a  few  days  be  literally  swarming.  The  verdict  is — do  not  spare  the  first 
vou  see,  aye,  and  look’for  them.  Never  see* a  curledi  or  crumpled  leaf 
am  quite  certain  was  not  following  the  directions.  Can  it  have  any 
effect  on  the  e^gs  ?  Being  a'n  ignoramus,  I  hazard  this  question.  From 
the  lasting  effect  of  this  compound  I  am  tending  towards  the  possibility 
of  this  ;  if  so,  it  is  an  additional  reason  for  using  it,  for  we  then  come 
to  an  application  of  a  remedy  before  the  pest  appears,  which  is  a  great 
desideratum,  and  the  point  which  struck  me  in  “  W.’s  ”  remarks.  1 
expressed  this  opinion  to  a  gardener  to  whom  I  had  lent  the  apparatus, 
and  he  replied,  *■  Well,  I  must  say  that  our  house  has  never  been  so  free 
of  aphides  as  since  I  used  it.” 
But  when  we  leave  the  house  and  come  to  the  opeD,  the  enemy  is 
much  more  difficult  to  conquer.  We  cannot  use  XL.  The  old  saying 
is,  that  ■*  the  master’s  eye  is  worth  two  pair  of  hands.”  Both  eyes  are 
needed  to  see  the  first  visitor  of  this  legion  of  persistent  enemies.  Any 
curled  or  crumpled  leaf  on  Peach,  Pear,  Plum,  or  Apple,  or  in  fact  any 
tree,  is  a  warning.  Pick  it  off  and  open  it.  and  possibly  a  family  of 
them  will  reward  the  search.  I  syringe  my  Peach  trees  daily,  in  the 
morning.  I  fancy  it  a  help,  but  when  the  leaf  is  curled  up  I  doubt 
