Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 3, 1802).djvu/37

19&#93; iNS As soon as the larvae are pro- duced, they devour the aphides around them, seizing the latter in their mouth, as delineated in the cut, and extracting their juices. We have not been able to ascertain their esaA duration in a caterpillar state, but believe that in about a fortnight they contraft, and attach themselves to some solid matter, by means of a little gluten which is discharged from their mouth j and are thus converted into chry- saLes or iiymphce, as above repre- sented. In this state, the inseft continues 10 or 11 days, when it bursts its cell, and emerges a per- fe6t fly, of which likewise a de- lineation is given. INS ['9 IF these insefts could be colleft- Cd, carefully preserved during the winter season, and properly dis- posed on iietlarine and peach-trees, early in the spring. Dr. Darwin tliinks, it is probable that the de- predations of the blite might be counterai^ed, " by tlie natural means of devouring one insert by another ; as the serpent of Moses devoured those of the magicians." A kind of bellows has been in- vented by Mr. Green, of her Ma- jesty's flower-garden, Kew, for tlae purpose of destroying the red spi- der, and other noxious insects in hot-houses and pineries, with the flimes of burning tobacco. The same noxious vermin may likewise be exterminated by burning (when the hot-house is shut), matches moistened with a spirituous tinc- ture of asa-fo5tida, and rolled in a powder consisting of equal parts of sulphur and Scotch snuff. It will also be of sei"vice to wash the frames of hot-houses, &c. with four ounces of sublimate, dissolved ia two gallons of water ; but this operation should be performed with the utmost caution, on account of the corrosive properties of the mer-« cury. In the Annales de Chimie, M. Tatin gives an account of a com- pound which he has successfulljr used for exterminating inserts. He directs l|of alb. of the best black, soap ; a similar quantity of flowers of sulphur J 2lbs. of any kind of mushrooms ; and 15 gallons of raia or river water, to be employed. The iluid is to be divided into two equal- parts, one of which is put into a barrel, together with the soap and mushrooms, after the latter have been somewhat bruised. The other half is to be boiled in a kettle with the sulphur inclosed in a bag, and fixed to the bottom of the vessel, by means of a stone or other 'eight. These ingredients are to be boil- ed 20 minutes, during which the sulphur should be well agitated with a stick, that the water may be the better impregnated. When the li- quid is taken from the Are, it is to be poured into the barrel, and stir- red daily, till the mixture become in a high degree fetid : for, the older and stronger the composition is, the more speedy and powerful will be its effects. The liquor is to be sprinkled on the plants infested with inseCts : great numbers of which it destroys on the first appli* cation ; it will, however, be ne* cessary to repeat the aspersion, in order to exterminate ants, or otlier vermin that breed beneath the soil : and, for this purpose^ from two to C 2 eight