Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1894 — Oil as an Insecticide. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Oil as an Insecticide.

It has long been k'nown that oil is one of the best agents to be employed in the destruction of insects, but unfortunately the best methods of using it have never been drawn out to a fine point. Insects mostly breathe through pores, and the oil closing up these pores, suffocates the insects; but if used in its full strength, oil will at the same time close the breathing pore of the plant and be just as destructive to one as to the other, says Meehan’s Monthly. About one-half a ’wine glass of oils with a gallon of rain-water, is the quantity recommended for the destruction of such insects as red spider thrips and aphis, To mix the water and oil it has to be boiled with soap, in the proportion of about one part of soap and eight of water. When the mixture of soap and water is near the boiling point it is poured into bottles and the oil added at that time. The nearer the liquid is to the boiling point at the time the oil is aoplied the better it will mix. Corked in bottles it can be kept for use. It is said than many of the insecticides advertised for amateur flower-growers are made in this way —preparations being occasionally varied —and where it can be bought cheaply it is often better to get it in that way than go to the trouble of making it one’s self. Sometimes the material obtained in this way may be diluted further by water, hut it is impossible to give exact directions in these cases. Those who try them must watch results and learn a little from their own experience.

NEW MARION COUNTY JAIL.