The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1904-04-14
WORK DE TIE ScfTFILISTA.

There is little question but that the
black scale which has been 50 severe "a
pest to our orchards has, like its fel-
low, the Cottony cushion scale, found
its Nemesis. 1t was at one time
thought that the Australian lady bird,
the Rhizobius yentralis, would prove
an efficient check on this pest, and 1t
did such good work in all the coast
counties, that this expectation was
justified, but all attempts to establish
it in the hot interior counties failed,
and in these cases faith was lost III its
efficiency. Now, however, the little
internal parasite, the Scutellista eva
nea, has taken hold in such good
shape and In all sections equally well,
that it is firmly believed that the
days of the black scale as pest III
our state are over. This parasite has
now had sufficient time to demon
strate what it can do. it is firmly es-
tablished all over the state, and seems
to do equally we'll in all sections and
localities. In a late report made by
Deputy horticultural Commissioner
Craw to the State Commissioner, In
speaking of this insect and its benet
cial work, that gentleman says;
''We are still receiving good reports
of the wonderful work of the black
scale internal parasite, Scuteliista
cyanea. In the Los Angeles Times of
January 3, 1904, Mr.. j. W. Jeffrey,
Horticultural Commissioner, has the
following: Prolific Insects. An idea
may be formed of the prolific nature
of the Scutellista from the fact that
as many as 800 full grown flies are
found in one . breeding jar of morn
ing, in the office of the horticultural
Commission of Los Angeles county.
estimate that from 10000 to b, 900
flies have been distributed throughout
the county since the 18th day o. last
August. This army of insect friends
is busy every day and we have hopes
that it will finally extirpate the most
destructive scale enemy the farmers
have to contend against. | have seen
an orchard within the week that
seems to have hundreds of thousands
of Scutellista busily engaged i'll alb
sorbing the juice of the eggs of the
scale The orchard was not colonized,
but the insects came from distance
and have gone through another grove
still more remote from the nearest ar
tificial colony. "
"When we consider that the first
colony of this valuable South African
insect was sent from this office to Los
Angeles on the 9th of June, 1902, and
the amount of work they have accom-
plished in eighteen months, at last
secured the true enemy of that trou-
blesome pes. the BLACK SCALE Leca-
mum Oleae. 1t is but twenty four
months since we commenced their
propagation from three females re-
ceived from Professor Chas. p. Louns
bury of Cape Town, and in this short
time, extensive orchards in Los An
geles, Orange, San Diego and other
counties have been freed from black
scale.
"For the past four months we have
been badly hampered in their indoor
propagation by our inability to secure
suitable trees infested with scale.
"F'rom the great variety of fruit
and other trees attacked by the black
scale, the damage done such trees and
the cost of annually spraying or fumi-
eating to keep the pest partly under
control, | believe that one million
dollars will be reasonable estimate
of the value of this parasite to Califor-
MIA. John Isaac, in Pacific Tree
and Vine.