The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: It is very difficult to destroy grubs of any kinds of insects when they abound. Dusting vegetables with wood ashes is a protection against some sorts of grubs without materially hurting the plant, and...

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85.11.00c

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Ferdinand von Mueller to the Weekly Times, 1885-11 [85.11.00c]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1880-9/1885/85-11-00c-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Answers to correspondents', Weekly times, Farmers gazette supplement, 7 November 1885, p. 1 (B85.11.05). It is introduced by

Destructive Grub .— T. W., Bleak House, Tarranginnie, has forwarded a specimen of grubs that he says are very destructive in the garden, eating the carrots, parsnips, cabbage plants, etc., and asks for the best means of destroying the plague. As Baron von Mueller is the highest authority in Victoria on this subject, we submitted the specimens to him, and the following is his reply: —‘.

It is very difficult to destroy grubs of any kinds of insects when they abound. Dusting vegetables with wood ashes is a protection against some sorts of grubs without materially hurting the plant, and, if chickens are bred, they may be let among the grubs, as they will devour many, the hen being kept in a portable basket or box, out of which the chickens can make their way among the infested plants. The cardinal remedy is to encourage the increase of insect-feeding birds in our gardens and fields; but, alas! these poor creatures are hardly allowed by indiscriminate sportsmen and playful youngsters to exist any more near our domiciles.