Americus times-recorder., 1919-06-04
PLANT EXPERT
TELLS HOW TO
FIGHT INSECTS
By Z. f. Rockwell.


blossom, which you have perhaps been
watchfully waiting for weeks, come to
maturity only to be disfgured. if not
destroyed, by some pernicious visitor
to your garden. Or you have careful
" set out and tended some particular
ly fine variety of favorite flower,
through to the early stages of growth,
only to discover some day that the
leaves are showing fine white spots
and curling up, and find on close
inspection, after the damage is done,
that thousands of little green plant
lice whose presence you had never sus-
pected was the cause of it.
The lover of flowers is often dis
couraged by the number of new bugs
worms and beetles which turn up.
There seems to be something to at
tack every plant that grows, and as
soon as one has got the better of one
trouble another one appears.
Success in the war again worms and
buys, however, as in everything else,
is largely a matter of knowing how
The great majority of the insects at
tacking your flowers, or Towering
shrubs, or fruits, can be controlled
by two simple remedies. That may
sound $50 easy" as to seem suspic-
iously like patent medicine adver-
tisement-but it is fact No garden
er can, however, hope to be successful
in fighting the garden pest until two
definite things have been learned.
Two Things To Learn.
First: To become familiar enough
with the various insects first as to be
able to tell what class or type they
belong to, so that the proper material
can be used against them.
Second: To watch constantly and
carefully to detect the first sign OF
trouble, and to be prepared to act i'm
mediately.
Ninety per cent. of the insects at
tacking your flowers belong to one of
the two general classes of eating in
sects or chewing insects. When some
new pests appear in your garden, the
first thing you want to determine is
how he takes his meals If he eats
holes in the leaves, petals or flower
buds of the plants, then it will be pos
sible to kill him with an internal poi
SON. The most effective of the inter-
nal poisons, and the most convenient
to use under any general conditions, is
arsenate of lead. This may be OBJ
tanned in either paste or powder form.
II is mixed with cold water, accord
ing to directions, to make poison spray
that is effective against eating or
chewing insects. Calcium arsenite,
light white powder, is also mixed
with water to make an effective arse
nate poison spray. Either of these
materials will leave a slightly notice
able white deposit on the foliage,
which some particular gardeners OBJ
ject to. Paris green, which is an
other arsenate poison, does not leave
any deposit but it is not as effective,
washes off more quickly and is not so
Sdlt W QCCs d0 tAlC lOll6lSC AlAeNS w
burned if the spray mixture is mixed
to strong. Either of these poisons
must be applied to the plants to be
protected when the bugs or worms tt
be fought first appear; that is, the
poison must be applied in advance to
whatever they are expected to feed
on
Learn This, Too.
AS the sucking insects which in
clude the various forms of plant lice
or aphids, are not affected by arsenate
of lead, paris green or any other inter-
nal poison spray. If gardeners would
only learn this simple thing it would
save many hours of work, many plants
and many dollars each season
The sucking insects get their nour-
ishment from inside of the leaves OIL
stems of the plants. Although they
may appear at first to be doing little
damage, they are really much more in.
furious than most of chewing insects
Unless immediate steps to fight then
are taken they are likely to ruin tht
entire plant or bed in short time
While many things have been recon-
mended for the control of plant lice
scales and sucking insects, the ont
thing which has proved the most con
yenient and the most efficient undel
ordinary conditions is nicotine sulph
ate, forty per cent strong. This is pu
out under various trade names such al
BLACK Leaf Forty" Nicotine extrac
containing as little as twelve per cen
nictoine with other ingredients, ar'
effective but the brands containing
forty per cent being stronger requires
less to make a good quality of spra.
material and are really cheaper, al
though they cost more per ounce o.
per pint To use they need merely to b.
mixed with cold water. On some plants
especially those with smooth shiny
foliage, it may be necessary to add {
small amount of soap to the spray tt
make it spread and stick better. One
teasponnful of forty per cent nicotine