If
the trees be already attacked, adding soft soap and sulphur to the
water will destroy them.
[Illustration: FIG. 1--Red Spider (magnified). A 1. Ditto
(natural size). 2. Underside of head. 3. Foot. 4. Spinneret.]
Sulphur is one of the most efficient agents known for killing them,
but it will not, however, mix properly with water in its ordinary
form, but should be teated according to the following recipe:
Boil together in four gallons of water 1 lb. of flowers of sulphur and
2 lb. of fresh lime, and add 11/2 lb. of soft soap, and, before using, 3
gallons more of water, or mix 4 oz of sulphate of lime with half that
weight of soft soap, and, when well mixed, add 1 gallon of hot water.
Use when cool enough to bear your hand in it. Any insecticide
containing sulphur is useful. The walls should be well washed with
some insecticide of this kind. Old walls in which the pointing is bad
and the bricks full of nail holes, etc., are very difficult to keep
free from red spider. They should be painted over with a strong
solution of soot water mixed with clay to form a paint. To a gallon of
this paint add 1 lb. of flowers of sulphur and 2 oz of soft soap.
This mixture should be thoroughly rubbed with a brush into every crack
and crevice of the walls, and if applied regularly every year would
probably prevent the trees from being badly attacked. As the red
spider passes the winter under some shelter, frequently choosing
stones, rubbish, etc., near the roots of the trees, keeping the ground
near the trees clean and well cultivated will tend greatly to diminish
their numbers.
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