Daily Yellowstone journal., 1890-01-22
ROMANCE OF A BUG.
An Insect Immigrant That L. saving Call.
fornla's Orange Industry.

Aud SET the bug bureau IN the depart
meni OF agriculture has one to tell.
just listen, and see If you do not find
il awfu,iy interesting.
For some years past" said Mr..
Howard, oE the bureau, "the great or
ange industry Of California has been
threatened with destruction by an in.
sect that sticks its beak INTO the tree
bark and sucks the vital sap, giving
forth sort of eNudation which has
procuHG for the pest the name of
white scale. II attacks not onl y or
anges and lemons. but all the citrus
tribe. trees of many other kinds and
even weeds hence the hopelcssness of
the complaint since. though the fruit
trees were clcansed Of it. the scale
would Immediately infest an orchard
again from ucighboring plants or
grasses 30 bgd WAS it in California
that orange growers there within
year have been digging up their or.
chards AMI goln. into other SORTS of
farming Twelve months ago Il looked
seriously ~ though the state would
shortly cease altogether 10 produce
oranges. Il was high time that some.
thing should be done"
And what was done| asked the re.
porter. interested.
something entirely new to science
and human knowledge. II was no.
ticel that when the scale first appear
ed. few years ago, il tackled, to he.
gin with. the acacia tree, imported
from Australia Naturally, tie in
ference was that the scale had come
from Australia with the acacia, and
the most distinguished entomdlogi>ts
of the island continent were written
to about the matter. They all said
that the white scale was plentiful IN
Australia. but that il did not amount
to pest. The orange orchards Were
attacked by 1t, out did not suffer
Whye OF couIsr there must bc some
good reason for this. and 10 AN ento.
mologist il was very plain. Clearly,
.he scale iuse't in Australia had an
.neny that pr yed upon il and kept Il
iown, and IN , enemy had not been
mporscd vii the scale itself into
California llay be. being more deli.
cate than q +. scale insect, ii had not
survived IL, voyage 50 much hav.
ing been Crtermlued, the next thing
was to find The enemy. The Austria.
lian entom .o.ists were asked about il,
but they nj SAID that they had never
heard of such "A thing, save one eX.
pert. This man replied that he had
found very small fly that wasa para.
site of the white scale. Eureka!
DO tell" echoed the newspaper
man.
so then we sent an expert of our
own from this bureau la Australia.
who made a study Of the scale in that
country and found the fly as represent
I'd. Ii Was very good sort Of fly
and ii fed on the scale for all il was
worth. but the trouble was that il did
not breed fast enough Ia be- of much
practical use. However, our agent
found a number OF other insects that
were also parasites Of the scales, among
them several kinds of ladybird beetle.
closely resembling the 'ladybug,' 50
called in America Hundreds of these
parasites OF various sorts were shipped
by hIm To California in wooden boxes.
on lee, every steamer for four months
carrying consignment Of them.
Meanwhile other agents of ours ut Los
Angeles. ia the midst Of the infested
district, had made preparations, inclos'
ing a number Of orange trees under
gauze tents, and on receipt Of the boxes
the insects that lad survived the voy.
age were liberated under the tents The
drawback about the little fly. which
does not multiply il, species with sui.
ficlent rapldlty, Was soon found Ia rem
der that small friend unavailable for
the purpose in view. but one species Of
lady bird beetle, on the other hand, was
discovered Ia be astonishingly prolific.
Ii has since been estimated that one Of
these beetles of the proper sex will be-
come grandmother within six months
10 seventy-iive billions Of her kind, all
of them surprisingly voracious; SO
much so, IN fact, that a single individ.
ual will destroy on an average 100 Of
the scales
And what did they do nexti'
"Well, a few Of the ladybirls es-
capped from the tents to neighboring
orange orchards. and going right TO
work had several hundred trees
cleansed entirely from the scales by
the time that our agents were ready
10 send around specimens TO the or.
ange growers. They sent a few TO
each one Of large number Of orange
farmers in various parts Of the state
in little boxes, anu the farmers put
them on the limbs of the trees and left
them 10 multiply by themselves. This
they did with such speed that orchards
of 1900 trees were altogether freed
from the scale within 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
But what will become Of the ever
multiplying vedaliasf"
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 nuisance again. This is
pleasing little provision OF nature. II
is worth mentioning that the credit Of
L.. "A .f..l -.