The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-14

tree. imported from Australia. Naturally.
the Inference was that t1e sale had come
from Australia with the scacia, and the
most distinguished ent0mologists OF the
island continent were write = about the
matter. They all said that the wal c scale
was plentiful in Australia, but that 1t did
not amount toa pest The orange orchards
were attacked by 1t. but did not suffer
why! Ot course, there must be some reason
Tor this, and u an entoGoloEss il was very
PLAIN Clearly, the scale insect N Australia
ha an enemy that pTsyed upon il and kept
1t down; and this enc ny had not BEEN i'm
ported with the scale itself into California
May be, being more delicate than the scale
insect, It had not survived the voyage. So
much having b-en determined, tie next
thing was 70 fad the enemy. The Aus
trallan entomoloSists were asked about it,
but they al said that they had never
heard OF such a thing. save one expert
Inis msa replied that he bad found very
small ny that was parasite of the white
scale. Elrekar'
TIE LADYBIRD BEETLE.
do tell" eched the newspaper man.
80 the we sent an expert of our own
from tbs bureau 70 Australia. who made
study OF the scale in that country and
found the fly as presented. 1t was a very
60 sort OF fly and It fed on the scale for
all II was worth, but the trouble was that it
didn't breed fast elou n to be of much
prac 1cal use. However, our agent found a
number Of other insects that were also
parasites OF the scale, among them several
Kinds OF ladybird b9etle. closely resembling
the lady bag So called in America. Hun
dreds of these parasites OF various sorts
were shipped by him to California in
wooden boxes, on lee, every steamer for
four months carrying a cons gnment of
them. Meanwhile other agents of ours at
Los Angeles, in the midst of the infested
district, mad made preparations, inclosiug a
number of orange trees under gauzs tents,
and on receipt Of the boxes the insects that
had survived the voyage were liberated I'M
der the tents. The drawback about the
little ny. which does not multiply its
species with sufficient rapiditv, was soon
found to render that small friend unavaila-
ole for the purpose ii view, but one species
OF ladybird beetle, on the other hand, was
discovered to be astonishiugy prolific. 1t
has since been estimated that one of these
beetles Of the proper sex will become grand
mother within six months to 70, 900, coo 900
Of her kind, all of them surprisingly vora-
clous; so much so, IN fact, that single in
dIvldual will destroy on an average 100 Of
the scales"
THE ORANGE INDUSTRY SAVED.
"And what did they do nextg'
swell. a few of the ladybrds escaped
from the tents to neighboring orange
orchards, and going right to work had sew
eral hundred trees cieansed entirely from
the scales by the time that our agents were
ready to send around specimens to the
orange growers. They sent few to each
one OF a large number of orange farmers n
various parts of the state in little boxes, and
the farmers put them on the limbs of the
trees and left them to multiply by them
selves. This ey did with such speed that
orchards of !, 900 trees were altogether freed
from the scale within six mont s. Here is
letter from one orange grover, who SAYS
that he received lis vedalias-f II 81 the
ladybird beetles are called-iu last March
and ty July 81 he had personally distributed
to 226 men 10000 beetles. Alrea y 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
i dustry with confidence in its superb pros
pects.n
THE WINDING-UP ACT.
But what viii become of the ever-mul-
tiplying vedalassn
when they have destroyed the scales, on
which they are having SO glorious a fe asst at
present., they will turA aud feed upon each
other until all are destroyed, save ony the
few nee ssary to Keep the scale from be.
| coming a nuisance again. This is a pleasing
little provision of nature. 1t is worth mem
| tioning that the credit of this w ,nderful
| achievement is due to Prof. c. v. Riley, the
chief of the chronological division of this
department"
f0