The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-10-18
Alexander Craw. Tells About
Imported Lady Bugs
SOME BENEFICIAL PARASITES
The Ineffectiveness OF the Gas and
Spray Treatment
The Accomplishments OF the Vedalia Cardinals
and Novius Koebelei Val.
liable Native Bugs

BY ALEXANDER CRAw, state quarantine office
at september meeting of State Hort:cul-
tura, society.
have been requested to exhibit some
OF our imported lady birds at this meet
ing OF our society. and in order that they
may be more conveniently studied 1 have
mounted specimens of the more import
ant species upon cards. You can observe
the different stages of their existence in
the breeding jars in the office of the state
board of horticulture. An interesting
feature Is the close emblance of the
young OF some species to the insects upon
which they prey. They are also different
from the perfect lady birds that frequent
~ orchardists loss track of them for a
time.
Calfornia's experience in propagating
and distributing beneficial insects as at
tracted the attention of fruit growers in
all parts OF the world. Not only lady
birds, but parasitic dipterous hymenop-
ferrous insects have been disseminated.
We have received applications for lady
birds and successfully sent them by mail
to far-away Cape of Good Hope, Ceylop,
Italy. Samoa, the Sandwich Islands,
Mexico ana other countries
We DO not look for the determination
of any u our scale or aphis by the use OF
parasites, but 1t is true that without their
assistance not orly our fruit trees and
cultivated plants, Dut also our stately
forest trees and more humble weeds
would soon be destroyed by tiny pests
that live oil their sap. If our scale in
sects would confine their attacks to fruit
trees alone we could check them to
great extent by our hydrooynaic gas
treatment, or the liberal use OF insect.
| cides in the form of sprays. But many
| of our indig shrubs and plants are
| veritable breeding grounds and this is
| where neticial insects come to our aid.
| The "cottony cushion scale, that some
| years ago threatened the destruction OF
| our great citrus industry, was covering
| the trees and brush on our hillsides and
| canyons and l doubt if even hre would
| have been effective m stamping out the
| pest. The introduction of q few Vedalia
! cardinals and Novius Koebelei has done
| the work so effectively that have
difficulty at times in keeping my colonies
of Vedaia and Novius supplied with
| food; when running sholt l request the
| applicants for ladybirds to send us i'll re-
turn scale-infested twigs. No one thinks
OF using artificial! means to check this
scale. although in two counties they
spent large sums of money in fighting it
after other sections had 10 fear of it.
consider the Novius Kobelei the bet
ter of the two. We only received three of
these alive after their long iourn ey from
Australia three years ago, but they IN
| creased so rapidly that We soon had them
by the thousands and sine that time we
have s.nt out more colonies of this spe
oies than the Vedalia. 1t searches out
toe individual scales in the orchard bet
| ter, and so does better work. The young
4 1orNt- tlra tl,n
| scale. Horticultural Commissioners Felix
G.. Ravens of Riversldss writes Septem Der
| 20, 1895: Your shipment of NovIus koe-
belief came to hand yesterday. The No.
| vius you sent me last April nave dune
their work thoroughly, and now am not
| to colonize these bugs on" The next
most important species is the "black
| ladybird,' rhizobius ventralis, that preys
| on black scale and other lecanlums. Ell
| wood Cooper, president OF the state board
of horticulture, received ten pains alive
from Australia in May, 1892 In that
time his extensive orchards have been
cleaned of black scale and hundreds of
| of black scale and hundreds of Thousands
| thousands of rhizobius sent to otner dis
tricts. Formerly it cost him $4,000 to
$4,000 annually to fight this scale. He
| fruit this season that ne ever had. Mr..
! Harold of Saticoy. Ventura county, re-.
ceived two dozen black ladybirds from
Mr.. Cooper less than two years ago, and
from mis- place about 80 colonies were
sent out last May. The beetle looks like u
black scale and the larvae are tho same
color as the smut. Orchards in Santa
Barbara county have been practically
cleaned by this lady bird. Among the
! foothills in Los Angeles and San Bernar-
dino counties. where large colonies have
| been placed, the results have not been
satisfactory, but have no fear Of ulti-
mate success. This failure may be due
to climatic conditions. A few years ago
| it was supposed that the black scale could
not exist IN that section, for trees which
were badly infested when planted there