The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-06-11
GRANGE.
WEEKLY PRESS NEWS LETTER.
INSECTICIDES AND FUNGICIDEs,

New chemical preparations are being
constantly brought forward as insecti-
cides and funglcides, with the usual
guarantee of the manufacturers that the
same are perfectly reliable. Prof. H. A.
Surface, the State Zoologist, has had
some of the circulars of these prepara-
tions sent to his Office in Harrisburg,
and has been requested to give his opin-
ion concerning them. His advice is that
no fruit grower nor farmer can afford to
use any chemical preparation eXten-
sively, until it has passed through the
experimental stage. The statements in
the circulars that are sent out by the
manufacturers are, as a general thing,
too positive and too strongly drawn. lie
recommends a trial of new insecticides
and fungicides, to find out what they
will do, rather than to go it blindly and
invest considerable money without re-
ceiving any benefit, or so little as not to
compensate for having made the expen-
diture. Some of the preparations now
on the market do more harm ir unskilled
hands than they do good.
POTATO BUGS AND BLlGHTS.
In answer to queries as to how to de
stroy potato bugs, as we'll as preven'
blight, State Zoologist Surface replies as
follows:
"The Colorado potato beetle or po-
tato bug will be very destructive in
many parts of this State this year. Spray
with the Bordeaux mixture to which
poison is added Make the Bordeaux
mixture by using four ponnds of blue
stone and five pounds of lime in fifty
gallons of water, and to this add either
one-half pound of Paris Green or two
pounds of arsenate OF lead. Spray thor
oughly and you will prevent blight and
every two weeks for blight, but If there
there are no bugs present. you need not
add the poison. Whenever the bugs are
present add the poison and spray for
them. There is no rule concerning the
frequency of repetition for potato bugs
as we simply spray when they come and
kill them as soon as possible. If you do
not wish to go to the trouble of making
the Bordeaux mixture for the blight, or
are willing to run the risk of the blight
not coming, YOU can kill the potato
beetles by spraying with either of the
two poisons mentioned, in fifty gallons
of water alone. But the best thing to
do is to make the regular Bordeaux
Al,
then add the poison to this. The Bor-
deaux is. for plant disease only, and will
not kill insects. 1t is thus fungicidc
To make it an insectlcide we add the
poison, as described above.
BLACK ANTS on PLANTS AND
TREES.
To request for information as to how
to rid plants and trees of black ants,
Prof Surface replies:
You can do this by finding the nest
ing places of these pests and making
holes into the interior of them with a
sharpened stick like n broom handle,
and pouring into each hole one-half tea
cup of carbon bisulphide. Fill the hole
with earth and cover it with wet cloth
or blanket to keep down the fumes, and
the ants will be destroyed at once. This
is the best possible method for destroy
ing ants of any kind. After the nest is
found, and the queen destroyed in the
manner stated, the colony is broken up.
Ants in the household are best treated
by following their path to the place
where they live and pouring in the car
bon bisulphide. If it be at the side of
a wall, or elsewhere where they can not
surely be located, one can destroy them
by pouring considerable quantity of
gasoline, or benzine, into the hole made
bv the side of the wall.
''Ants, as seen going up and down
trees, are not themselves the cause of
visiting Plant Lice, or Scale Insects, or
sometimes plant glands, for the pur-
pose of obtaining the sweet liquid, call
ed honey dew, which is secreted by
them. Thus the ant is generally an in
dication of serious pests on the trees,
although Itself dong no injury. 1t is,
therefore, not necessary to treat the
trees for ants, but to treat them for the
pests which the ants visit. This means
spraying with a contact insecticide, of
the proper strength, at the right season,
according to what the pest may be.
'Black ants sometimes make nests OF
mounds in which vegetation does moi
grow, and thus become Objectionable
The method described above destroys
them in their nests, but where they are
in decaying wood they should not be re-
garded as serious enemies of mankind
nor destroyers of property; and they dc
not deserve destruction.
why He Never Spoke.
t. I'D