The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-06-19
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
Insect PcafH.


A great variety of insects-fies, moths
and beetles chiehy-in their Larvae condi-
ton subsst upon the wood, bark or pith
of trees and shrubs. The remedies for
the tree borers are to dress the lower part
of the stem with some repellant prepare
tion, as mixture of COW dung, clay and
superphosphate of lime. made into a
paste and pastered on the bark near the
ground, beginning in June and contin-
uing until late in summer. Either the
parent insects avoid the trees so pro-
tected, or the young larv9 cannot or will
not penetrate the coating and so perish.
Another remedy is to dig out the grubs
that have made an entrance with knife
and small chisel, or to follow them up
with a flexible wire in their burrows and
kill them. The smaller shrubs are saved
by pruning off the branches into which
the borers have penetrated while soft
stemmed plants may be split and the
grubs taken out and destroyed.
Pears. plums and ounces are much
troubled by small, dark, soft bodied
slug, which devours the soft substance of
the leaves and reduces them to skeleton.
This checks the growth of the tree by
destroying its breathing organs. Peter
Henderson in his book, GLOW the Farm
Pays" recommends that in such cases
the leaves be busted with fine, dry, air
slaked lime, which at once destroys, by
its strong alkaline and acrid property,
these moist, soft creatures.
The greatest pest of the apple tree is
the cooling moth or apple worm. This
is a grayish moth, which lays its eggs
upon the blossom end of the fruit when
it is set, and later, up to the time when
it is half grown. The arve eats its way
into the heart of the apple around and
into the core, when the fruit falls, and
the insect leaves it and goes into the
ground for the winter. 1t is tie second
brood which attacks the half.ripened
fruit and remains in it during the win
ter. There are several remedies. The
fruit grower is advised to gather the
fallen fruit and burn it, or feed it to the
pigs; or to turn the pigs and sheep into
the orchard TO consume the fallen fruit
before the grubs leave it. Another rem.
edy is to spray the trees when the bios
SONS have fallen, and again, as the fruit
increases in size, with a mixture of one
teaspoonful of Paris green in three gal
Ions of water, adding little molasses to
keep the mineral in suspension and make
it adhere.
In regard to the curculio that pest of
the plum tree, the Massachusetts Plcugh-
man says:
"If one has an orchard so situated
that a yard can be built around it to
enclose hens, this is undoubtedly the
cheapest if not the most etfectual
way to destroy the curculio. En-
perience proves that to be more GER
tain Of destroying this insect the
trees should stand little distance from
the fence, for if the trees are near it, the
curculio fly over from the outside directly
on to the trees, and are thus out of reach
of the hens, unless the trees are Jared
to drop them to the ground" A CORE
spondent of the Country Gentleman rec
ommends white hellebore as an etTectual
remedy for the gooseberry and currant
worm when thinly busted over the leaves.
A better way, however, is to mix it with
water at the rate of a tablespoonful to
two or three gallons of water and apply
with fine rose or spraying syringe.
"There are some insects which come
in fewer numbers, which have to be
treated in less wholesale way. The
peach grub, it is said, may be kept out
of the tree or killed when already in, by
digging small depression around
the foot of the stem and pouring in
pint of soft soap but the old way of
taking them out with the point of
knife is easier, unless they happen to be
very numerous. The grub or cut-worm,
which so often eats off the stems of
young cabbages, has been repealed with
mi IF IF 81 n1
four of wood ashes, and tenth of salt,
spread around the plants; but wrapping
the stem, at planting, in small piece of
burdock leaf, which decays by the time
the plants are beyond danger, is perhaps
easier, and is at the same time perfectly
secure"