The herald., 1893-09-13
SCALE BUG DESIRoYERS.

Some Beneficial Insects In Ventura
County.
The Venturan Onr most common
friends among insects are the conver-
gent and ambiguous lady birds. The
convergent lsdy-bird has red wings COW
cred with six black spots on each cover,
the three spots on the front end OF the
wing cover are about one-third as large
as the three back spots. The thorsx is
black with white band around the
edge and two white epots near the mid
die. The wing covers of the ambiguous
lady-bird are all red. These lscy-birds
feed upon various kind OF aphis, includ-
in the W. oily sphis and the mature
beetles also feed on young scale. The
twice stabbed lady-bird may be found
in any orchard infested with black scale.
The Larvae of this specie is very peculiar; ;
they are black with yellow bsnd across
the back and covered with spines. The
beetles are black with one bright red
epot on each wing cover, are almost
round, and little ones one-eighth OF an
inch in diameter. Tney do much good
by devouring young black scale. The
aehy gray lady-bird ia a very pretty lit
tie beetle, about three-sixteenth of an
inch in diameter and of an ashy-gray
color, and semi-globular shape. 1t
has seven black spots on the thorax and
eight on each wing cover, they are
quite abundant and feed on the black
scale. We also have the Australian
iady-bird and the brown-necked lady
bird. l have. already written to Hon.
Elwood Cooper of Santa Barbara for
colony OF the new Australian lady-birds
that are exascted to clear out the black
scale. Another insect which is quite
abundant and fond of aphis, and partic-
ularly the orange aphis, is the syrphus
fly. This fly is about one-half inch long
and prettily ornamented with yellow
stripes across their bodies. Lace winged
flies, or aphis lions, are also quite abun-
dant. l find their larvae feeding on
scale, orange aphis and red spider. We
have another class OF insects that do
vast amount of good. although they are
30 small that no one but an entomolo-
cist ever sees them. They are what is
known as Chalcid fies they are from
FIVE to ten hundredths OF an inch in length
and under the microscope some species
are very pretty. | suppose because
common people never see them. The
soft orange scale would soon de-
stroy our orange trees, II it
with yellow legs five hundredths
OF an inch long called Encyrtus fiavus.
The black scale would be much more
serious pest ii it were not for another
little fiy ten hundredths of an inch long
called Tomocera California. You can
easily see those little flies If you care to,
by placing twigs infested with scale in
Jelly tumblers and shutting the tum-
Der until the flies hatch. There are
quite number OF those Chalcid para
sites in this country but will not take
time to mention them here. think
this eystem Of lighting pests with their
natural enemies which has been pub
lished with so much energy and credit,
by our state board OF horticulture, ie
the best system in the world, and l
earnestly look forward to the time
when it will be no longer necessary to
spray or gas trees, when we can treat
all pests as. We treat the cottony
cushion ecale now. Our state entomol-
ogist Mr.. Alexander Crsw has just ex-
pressed his belief that the black ecale
parasite now at work on Elwood Coop
er's orchard at Santa Barbara would in
time thoroughly rid the orchard OF these
pests and advises that spraying be dis
continued where this parasite has been
introduced to give them chance to in
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