s but of the foliage as well, will revive them wonderfully.
Use the hose about sunset. By morning the plants will be entirely
revived.

[Sidenote: Insect Foes of Asters]

The red spider and aphis have no special fondness for the Aster. They
get after it when it comes in their way, as they do anything else. But
the Aster has two implacable enemies that by their ravages have done
more to discourage people from growing these plants than all other
causes combined. These two foes are blister beetles and root lice.

RED SPIDER bothers in hot dry weather. Water is their foe. When the
familiar thin, half-dying foliage appears, grey on the under-side and
showing a few fine webs underneath, there is no mistaking the signs. It
is the red spider. If a hose is used in the garden, turn the water on
under a full head, directing it to the under-side of the leaves where
the invisible pests have their colonies. Never mind if it does bend the
plants by the force of the stream. They can be straightened afterwards.
Play up and down, under and all around. If well done, and the deed
repeated a couple of days after, they will have been killed. If no hose
is available, use a sprinkler, dashing the water on with all the force
possible.

APHIS is the common plant louse. Some use tobacco stems as a mulch about
Asters instead of manure. Tobacco factories and dealers in florist's
supplies sell these at low prices, as it is the refuse material left
after manufacturing tobacco for smoking and chewing. Where these can be
obtained it is a sure preventative not only against aphis but almost any
other insect.

Other remedies for aphis are spraying with a hard stream of water. Two
or three thorough applications will finish them. Kerosene emulsion will
kill them. So will insect powder if it has not become stale, and if used
on a still, calm day when there is no air stirring to revive its
suffocated victims.

THE BLISTER BEETLE or aster beetle comes along when the plants are in
bloom or in bud. They are half to three-quarters of an inch long, black
with grey stripes down their back. Oh! how they devour all before them!
Out of the unknown they come, hordes of them. They tarry but two or
three days, and leave but bare stalks behind them, every bed, every
flower, and every leaf eaten off.

The remedy is to fight them.

When the lytta, _alias_ blister beetle, arrives, prepare to give a warm
welcome to him and all of his kind. There are several methods