Spraying has been given up as a suitable method for controlling the black scale on citrus trees, and the only recognized method of merit where the scale is bad is by fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas.  You should communicate with your county horticultural commissioner, who, through inspectors, will see that you have a good job done, at the right time and at as moderate price as is compatible with good work.  It is impossible to ‘eradicate’ the black scale, but there is a great difference in the amount that can be killed, and it pays to have a job done as near perfectly as possible.  Similar methods of attacking other scale insects on citrus trees are used.

Finding Thrips.

How can the presence of pear thrips be detected in a prune orchard?  Will the distillate emulsion-nicotine spray control brown scale as well as thrips?

You can find thrips by shaking a cluster of blossoms, as soon as they open, over a sheet of paper or in the palm of your hand.  The thrips are very minute, transparent, somewhat louse-like insects.  The spray you mention would probably have little effect on the brown scale which would still be in the egg state and under cover, at the time the early spring spraying for the thrips.

Control of Pear Slug.

I am sending, under separate cover, some samples of cherry tree leaves that have been attacked by a small snail or slug.  Kindly let me know what they are, and how to rid the trees of them.

The creatures you speak of are the pear slugs, or the cherry slugs, as they are sometimes known.  Although slimy, like the big yellow slug that is a pest in vegetable gardens, it is no relation thereto, but is the larva of an insect.  Its olive green color, slimy appearance and the way it eats the surface of the leaves make it about the easiest of all insects to identify.  Parasites and predacious insects usually keep it in fair control.  Whenever artificial methods of control are needed the slugs can best be destroyed by sprinkling dust of any kind upon them.  If you can get a machine for sulphuring a vineyard and use some air slaked lime or other fine dust, it will fix them quickly and inexpensively, though any way of applying dust may be used.

Cutworms and Young Trees.

What method should be used to protect young fruit trees from cutworms?

Hoe around the trees or vines and kill the fat, greasy grubs which you will find near the foliage.  Put out a poisoned bait which the worms like better than the foliage, viz.  Bran, 10 pounds; white arsenic, 1/2 pound; molasses, 1/2 gallon; water, 2 gallons.  Mix the arsenic with the bran dry.  Add the molasses to the water and mix into the bran, making a moist paste.  Put a tablespoonful near the base of the tree or vine and lock up the chickens.

Control of Squash Bugs.

We are troubled with pumpkin bugs.  Please tell us what to do for them.