THE INSECT ENEMIES OF PLANTS

Every woman who attempts to grow flowers in the house will sooner or later have to wage warfare against insects.

Perhaps the first battle will have to be fought with the aphis, or plant-louse. This insect sucks the sap—the life-blood of the plant—from stalk and leaf, and soon, if let alone, it will exhaust the vitality of the plant to a degree that is wholly incompatible with health. In fact, if allowed to have its way, it will kill your plants, for it propagates its species with such rapidity that a plant will soon be literally covered with them. We used to kill off these insects by fumigating the plants infested with them with tobacco smoke, and in doing it we made ourselves about as sick as the insects were, and the nauseating fumes of it clung to everything in and about the house for days. Nowadays we make use of the nicotine principle of tobacco in our warfare against the aphis, but in a manner that leaves out the objectionable features of fumigation. Tobacco manufacturers have prepared an extract of the nicotine in the plant, and put it on the market under the name of nicoticide. All we have to do when we want to make use of it is to put a small quantity in water, and spray our plants with the mixture. Every aphis that it touches will die, and those that it fails to reach will take the hint that they are not wanted and that their presence will not long be tolerated, and the first you know they will have disappeared.

Instead of waiting for the attack of the enemy I consider it good policy to anticipate it by frequent applications of the tobacco-bath. It will be found easier to keep the enemy away than to rout it after it has established itself on your plants.

The red spider is another insect that does deadly work in the window-garden, especially in rooms where the temperature is high and there is little moisture in the air—a condition that generally prevails in the ordinary living-room. This pest is so small that its presence is seldom suspected until considerable injury has been done to the plants it works on. If you notice that leaves are turning yellow and dropping off, and that more and more of them fall each day, you had better look into the matter. Examine some of the fallen leaves. If you find tiny webs on the under side of them you may be quite sure that the spider is responsible for the condition your plants are in. Look at some of the leaves that are yellowing, but have not yet let go their hold, and you will be quite likely to find little red specks on them. These specks resemble grains of fine Cayenne pepper more than anything else. Watch them for a while and you will find that they are living organisms. It seems hardly possible that such tiny creatures can do much harm to a strong plant, but the fact is that there is no more voracious enemy of plant life in existence. Here the tobacco-bath does not come in play. Cold water is all the insecticide we need. Spray it over every portion of the infested plants daily, until they again take on a healthy look and begin to grow. The spider will not stay long in a moist atmosphere. Make it moist and keep it so by the liberal use of water sprayed upon your plants, and you will have very little trouble with this dangerous pest. But if you neglect to use water regularly and freely the probabilities are that your window-garden will look rather sickly by spring.

Scale is an insect that often attacks plants having thick, firm-textured foliage, like the oleander, lemon, ivy, ficus, and palm. It is a flat creature, looking more like a fish-scale than anything else, hence its name. It attaches itself to the leaf and sucks the life out of it. The best weapon to fight this enemy with is an emulsion made as follows: shave thinly half a pound of white soap; pour a little water over it and set it on the stove to liquefy. When the soap is melted, add to it a pint of water and bring to a boil. When boiling, add a teacupful of kerosene and three tablespoonfuls of the tobacco extract. These ingredients, under the effect of heat, will form an emulsion that will unite readily with water. Use in the proportion of one part emulsion to fifteen parts water. Apply to the infested plants with a soft cloth or a camel's-hair brush. Be sure that some of it gets to all parts of the plant. Two or three applications may be necessary. Prepare a quantity of it and keep it on hand for use when needed.

The emulsion spoken of above is an excellent remedy for the ills the rose is heir to during the early part of the season. If Paris green is sprayed onto the plants the foliage is frequently burned by it. If kerosene is mixed with water and applied, the oil will seldom emulsify perfectly with the water, and wherever a drop of it falls on leaf or bud it will do quite as much damage as would the bug or worm you are fighting. Hellebore is never to be depended on. The kerosene-tobacco-soap emulsion will be found safe and effective.

Worms in the soil of pot plants can be got rid of by the use of lime-water. Put a piece of perfectly fresh lime as large as the ordinary coffee-cup in ten quarts of water. If fresh, as it must be to be of any benefit, the water will seem to boil for a little while. By and by a white sediment will settle to the bottom of the vessel, and the water above will be clear. Pour this off and apply enough of it to each plant to saturate all the soil in the pot. Plug up the drainage hole in the bottom of the pot before the application is made, that the water may be retained long enough to do its work. Repeat the application if necessary.