PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 81 



remedy that we know of for the pear-blight beetle is to cut and burn the 

 limbs as soon as they show signs of death. This will kill the young borers 

 before they can mature. 



GRAPE-VINE ROOT BORERS. 



The roots of the grape vine are subject to the attack of two root borers, 

 neither of which is usually common. One of them is a giant grub that 

 requires about three years for it to grow and is from two to three inches < 

 long when full grown. This grub is yellowish white, with reddish brown 

 head and a bluish line down the back, and developes into a large, brown, 

 long-horned beetle. The root is often almost entirely eaten up by the 

 grub before the vine dies. Vines are often sickly without any noticeable 

 disease or injury above ground, and people often wonder what causes 

 their vines to be sickly. When vines die suddenly, without any apparent 

 cause, the roots should be examined to see if these borers are working in 

 the center of them, and if so the grubs should be killed. 



The other borer is smaller — not much larger than the peach tree borer, 

 which it resembles in appearance. Another difference is that the giant 

 borer has only six legs, while this one has sixteen. This borer, known 

 scientifically as Sciapieron polisiiformis, works mostly outside on the bark 

 and sap wood. When mature, the grub transforms into a wasp-like moth 

 which in turn lays eggs around the collar of the vine for the next gener- 

 ation. Mulching or mounding the vines with coarse manure or some 

 similar mulch will greatly deter the moth from laying her eggs and will 

 also be an aid to the vines through dry weather. 



RASPBERRY BORERS. 



There is a borer that occasionally attacks the roots of the raspberry, but 

 the only two insects of which I shall speak are those that work on the 

 young canes and shoots. The work of either of them will be quickly 

 noticed by the wilting of the canes, in June and July, some distance down 

 from the top but not clear to the ground. 



One of the girdlers is a slender female beetle which cuts two circles 

 aV)out an inch apart and between these circles lays an egg in the cane. 

 This prevents the growth of the cane crushing the egg before it hatches. 

 The young borer works down into the cane, through the pith, and usually 

 kills it before the next spring, The borer by fall is nearly an inch long, 

 slender, shining, dull yellow, with a dark brown head. The beetle which 

 comes from it the next spring is about half an inch long, slender, dark 

 brown, with a reddish yellow thorax on which are two or three dark spots. 



The other girdler is a new pest to the raspberry, whose name we have 

 not yet learned. It works entirely on the young shoots springing from 

 the roots. It is a little white maggot with black jaws and bores an 

 irregular channel down through the center from near the top. When a 

 few inches from the ground, the maggot girdles the shoot on the inside so 

 close to the outside bark that it can be seen at work through the bark. 

 After the shoot is girdled, the maggot continues its way downward toward 

 the root. The maggot is closely related to the cabbage maggot that works 

 in the roots of cabbages and radishes. It is elongate cone-shape, and is 

 not a quarter of an inch long when it does the girdling. 

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