The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1890-01-22
RoMAkcE Of A aun

An Insect Immigrant Tliat L. saving Cali
fornia's Orange Industry
An entomologicaI roniancei You
never heard of such a thing. perhaps.
And yet the bug bureau in the DEPART
ment Of agriculture has one to tell.
just listen, aud see if you do not find
it awfully Interesting.
iityleor some years past, said Mr.
[ Howard, of the bureau. ''the great or
ange industry of California has been
Threatened with destruction by an in
sect that sticks its bealS into the tree
bark aud sucks the vital sap, giving
forth sort OF oxidation which has
procured for the pest the name of
white scale 1t attacks not only or
anges and lemons, but all the citrus
tribe, trees of many other kinds and
even weeds, hence the hopelessness of
the complaint sincy though the fruit
trees were cleansed. of il. the scale
would Immediately infest am orchard
again from neighboring plants or
grasses, So. bad was it in California
that orange growers there within
year have been digging up their or
chards and going into other sorts Of
farming. Twelve months ago it looked
seriously as though the state would
shortly cease altogether to produce
~ was hit5 tAlnC SOAuC-
thing should be donen ~
And what was donef' asked the re-
porter, interested.
Something entirely new to science
and human knowledge. 1t was no
ticed thai, when the scale first appear
ed, a few. years ago, it tackled, TO be-
gin with, the acacia tree, imported
from Australia. Naturally, the in
ference, was that, the scale had come
from Australia with the acacia, and
the most distinguished, entoniologists
OF the island continent were written
ITO 1about5 the emafter.t They all said
that the white scale was plentiful in
Australia, but that it did not amount
TO a pest. The orange orchards were
attacked by it, but did not suffer
Whyl OF course there must be some
good reason for this, and to an ento-
nologist it was very plain. Clearly,
the scale insect in Australia had an
enemy that preyed upon it and kept it
down, and this enemy had not been
imported with the scale itself into
California May be, being more deli
cate than the scale insect, it had not
survived the voyage. So much hay-
ing been, determined, the next thing
was to find the enemy. The Austria
han entomologists Were asked about it,
but they all said that they had never
heard of such n thing, save one ex-
pert. This man replied that he had
found very small fly that was para
site of the white scale. Eurekar'
DO tellp' echoed the newspaper
man. ~
So then we sent an expert of our
own from this bureau to Australia,
who made u study of the scale in that
country and found the fly as represent
ed 1t was very good sort of fly
and IT fed on the scale for all it was
worth, but the trouble was that it did
not breed fast enough TO be of much
practical use. However, our agent
found number of other insects that
were also parasites of the scales, among
them several kinds of ladybird beetle,
closely resembling the 'ladybug,,' so
called in America. Hundreds of these
parasites of various sorts We're shipped
by him to California in wooden boxes.
on ice, every steamer for four months
carrying a consignment of them.
z Meanwhile other agents of ours atLos
Angeles, in the midst of the infested
district, had made preparations, inclos
ing number of orange trees under
gauze tents, and on receipt of the boxes
the insects that had survived the vow
age were liberated under the tents. The
drawback about the little fly, which
does not multiply its species with suf-
,hcient rapidity, was soon found to rem
der that small friend unavailable for
the purpose in view, but one species of
ladybird beetle, on the other hand, was
discovered to be astonishingly prolific.
1t has since been estimated that one of
these beetles of the proper sex will be-
come grandmother within six months
In ~ lNal l.
OF them surprisingly voracious; so
much so, in fact, that single indiyid-
ual will destroy on an average 100 of
the scales. " %
ai'' And what did they do nextG'' 3l,
Well, few of the ladybir es-
capped from the tents to neighborinp
orange orchards, and going right to
work had several hundred trees
cleansed entirely from the scales by
the time that our agents were ready
to send around specimens to the or
ange growers. They sent few to
each one of large number of orange
farmers in various parts of the state
III little boxes, and the farmers put
them on the limbs of the trees and left
them to multiply by themselves. This
they did with such speed that orchards
OF 5000 trees Were altogether freed
bAAC SSdhC WllIllu SIX months.
Already the state of California Is
practically freed from the pest and the
orange and lemon growers can once
more look to the future of their indus
try with confidence in its superb pros
poets" ,s-.-i,-5., ~, - :,
But what will become of the ever
multiplying vedaliasip %
When they have DESTROYED the
scales, on which they are having so
glorious feast at present they will
turn and feed upon each other until
all are destroyed, save only the few
necessary to keep the scale from be-
coming a nuisance again. This is a
pleasing little provision of nature. It
is worth mentioning that the credit of
this wonderful achievement is due to
Professor G. V. Riley, the chief of the
chronological division of this depart
ment Washington Star.
With the Left Hand.