PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 



77 



For the entire class of flat-headed and round-headed borers, alkaline 

 washes of some kind serve nicely as a repellant. They seem to be 

 unpleasant to the beetle and she will not deposit her eggs on a tree 

 washed with them nor remain long on such a tree herself. Soft soap is 

 generally considered the best wash, as it can be so easily applied and 

 when once thoroughly dried upon the bark is not easily washed off. If a 

 small amount of crude carbolic acid, perhaps one part to twenty parts of 

 the soap, is used, this mixture will be even more effectual in repelling the 

 beetles. Soft soap, as generally made, is a little too thick to use as a' 

 wash," but it should be diluted only enough to spread well and leave a 

 soapy film over all the bark. It may be applied with a broom or scrub- 

 bing brush. Care should be taken to reach all crevices in the bark, as 

 there is where the eggs are most likely to be deposited. The first applica- 

 tion should be made early in June and, if the next few weeks are rainy, a 

 second application should be made in early July. The base of the tree, 

 near the surface of the soil, is the most likely to be attacked, but the rest 

 of the trunk and the large limbs should also be washed as far up as can 

 be conveniently reached, for the borer works there, too. 



When at work under the bark, the borers may be detected by the chips 

 pushed out of the opening. They may be dug out, but unless care and 

 good judgment are used, one will dig such large holes in search of the 

 borer that the knife will do more harm than the borer would if left alone. 

 Hot water may be injected or a wire entered and little or no harm done 

 to the tree, but it is usually quite difficult to reach the borers in this way 

 and be certain that they have been killed. 



% THE ROUND-HEADED BOEERS. 



Another family of borers, that work on the sap wood mostly, are the 

 round-headed borers. They belong to the Cerambycidee, or long-horned 

 beetles. The swollen portion just back of the head is nearly spherical 

 and the borers make a round or oval instead of a flat burrow, hence the 

 names of the two kinds. These borers, like the flat-headed ones, are foot- 

 less and move in the burrow by alternately contracting and expanding the 



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a 6 € 



Round Headed Apple Teee Boeek [Saper da Candida), a, larva; 



6, papa; c, beetle. 



body. There are several species that attack the apple, the most common 

 being in the mature form a beautiful white, striped beetle known as 

 Saperda Candida. The eggs are laid in June and July, singly, over the 

 bark, and the young grub hatches from them inside of two weeks. 

 Instead of going through all the transformations in one year, three years 

 are required for its development. While the actual work of the flat- 

 headed borer does not last over six months, that of the round-headed 



