Quassia

Quassia

  • Quassia has the advantage of not killing ladybirds which are eating your aphides, the advantage of cheapness, and the advantage of sparing bees when it is sprayed against apple sawfly or raspberry beetle caterpillars at blossom time.

  • It consists of chips of wood of Picrasma quassioides which keep dry for years in a tin, and can only be ordered through a good chemist, because although it is still used by District Nurses to get rid of lice in children's hair, it is rarely used by gardeners.

  • Boil four ounces in a gallon of water for half an hour, pour off the yellow liquid when cool and dilute with three parts of water for an all-round garden spray against aphides and small caterpillars.

  • Quassia tastes very bitter and should not be used on leaf crops that are going to be eaten within a fortnight.

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