Means Of Prevention.

As English hop planters cannot irrigate the hop land, as is done in Tasmania, the only means of prevention are to apply hot lime or other caustic and pungent substances, as soot or lime, round the hop stocks in the late autumn after an attack, taking care that this should be put over the stocks and pieces of bine left on them. After an attack it would be of course desirable that the poles should be treated with a solution of paraffin or petroleum to kill the mites in their cracks. Practically, however, as hop planters would agree, this is almost impossible.

In the case of poles that are fixtures in the ground to carry wires or strings, according to the new methods of training hops, so much adopted in Germany and extending in this country, it would be well after an attack of red spiders to wash these poles with a strong solution of soft soap and water, with quassia added, or with paraffin or petroleum solutions brushed well into the crevices.

Poles should be well shaved before they are set up, as their bark harbours these mites and many insects injurious to hop plants.