The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-11-18

Dine has been issued lioiii LIZ "a sss'i-
Agricultural Experiment Station;
This pest of the pineapple IS a scale
| insect which, because OF rs specldl 1ond-
ness for this plant, has rtce:h e. the com i1
mon name til, tPine.Dple 9caie. ne
insect was first desc-ibed by Kerrer IN
Tzz9 and besides aEtacizing the Pine
snn1e IS .eiae.y distributed on various
nIants II. greenhouses. 1t has been re-
norted from the countries of northern
F1rope; from Massachusetts,, Washing
ion. ID. c.. Ohio, California, and Flor
ia in the United States; and from
Mexico. Jamaica, Cape Colony, and
Natal Prof. v. L. Kellogg OF Stanford
University. to whom the writer IS IN
debted for the determination OF the IN
sect saws: "Probably bromeliae (p1ne-
apple scale) will be found IN time
wherever the pineapple IS grown Other
food plants are ivy. Gamma, hibiscus,
acacia, olea (olive), billbergia, and GER
tain varieties of greenhouse palms he
writer took the first specimens OF this
scale from a pineapple plantation at
Wahiawa, Oahu, on October 70, 1908,
and since then has observed the pest IN
every plantation visited on this island
and the island of Hawaii. Although
|
lands. Mrs NJ. E. Fernald does not
record it from Hawaii in her catalogue
of Coccids, nor is it found in Mr.. Kirk
aldy's recent work on Hemlptera IN
Fauna Hawaiiensis Mr.. P. H. Rolls
saws regarding the appearance of this
insect in Florida 1T has been found
repeatedly on plants imported from Ha-
wall. and has been disseminated to many
parts of Florida" DR. L. Reh of Ham
burg, Germany, also records the pest as
common in these Islands, having collect
ed specimens himself at the Government
Nursery on Feb. 20, 1902.
Prof F. v Theobald, an English
authority on economic entomology, says:
"Pineapples are frequently damaged by
scale insect, which now and then
causes the fruit to rot his scale
is the Pineapple Scale (Diaspis brorn-
eliae,e Kerner.) The, scale IS thin, cir
cular and pure wl1ite-the females yell
low or orange. Like most Diaspids,
they burrow beneath the epidermis of
the plants and become almost entirely
hidden. 1t chiefly attacks the leaves,
but now and then the fruit. 1t should
be destroyed as soon as the fruit is cut
Dr. Reh in describing the work of this
scale states that it attaches itself to the
plant on the base of the leaf spreading
from there to the stem and eventually
covering the entire plant which it kills.
On the fruit if attacks principally the
green, unripe portion. A symptom of an
attack is rust colored spots on the
leaves. DR.. Reh says further that milk
of lime was used as an insecticide for
this pest in Berlin and Russia.
These small, scale-1ike insects are very
conspicuous, because of their color, and
not easily mistaken for other forms.
The scale and not the insect itself is
the object commonly seen. The
insect is found beneath this secretion,
which serves as a shield. In the case
of this insect the scale or protective
armor is made UP partly of a waxy Sc
crefion of the insect and partly of mott
ed skins The insect itself in the adult
STAGE is quite we'll buried beneath the
epidernlis of the plant and hence the
necessity of combating the pest in its
earlv stages.
The pineapple scale can be controlled
by spraying where it occurs in the field.
The cheaper and easier method is by
proper preventive measures to keep
the pest from gaining foothold in the
plantation. These measures are to burn
all leaves where the pest is at all evident
after harvesting the crop, to dip young
plants in an insectic1de before planting
and to produce the maximum vigor and
health of the plants by thorough culti-
walton and fertilization. In the question
of the control of the insect pests and
diseases of plants, no one point is more
important than vigorous and clean cult
walton and the proper supply of plant
food and moisture 1t is an accepted
fact in applied entomology that a healthy
Of off
resistance to the attack of an insect pest.
DR.. l. 0. Howard, entomologist of
the U. S. Department of Agriculture,
mentions a Hymenopterous parasite,
Aspidiotiphagus citrinus Craw., bred
from the pineapple scale at Washington
The remedies advised by Mr. Rolls
in his Bulletin on Pineapple Growing,
have been verified in experiments at