ITS Bulletin 176. 



tree more or less, the damage done depending much on the age of 

 tlie tree, and Avhether it is well fed and cultivated. We have yet 

 to learn of a successful and progressive fruit-grower who thinks he 

 can afford to let the peach-tree borer have its own way in his peach 

 or plum orchards. 



One can usually quickly determine if a peach tree is infested with 

 borers. The work of the borer always causes the tree to exude a 

 large amount of a mucilaginous matter w^iicli forms a gummy mass 

 around the infested portion. We have seen at least two tablespoon- 

 fulls of this gum result from the w^ork of a single borer in a peach 

 tree. This gummy mass mixed with particles of bark and the excre- 

 ment of the borers is frequently visible on the surface of the soil 

 close around the base of the tree. In figure 45 is shown a small 

 peach tree surrounded by a ring of this gum resulting from the work 

 of borers. By this tell-tale evidence, the presence of this gum at 

 the base, one can usually determine at a glance if a peach-tree is 

 suffering from borers. 



Where the peach-tree borer attacks plum or prune trees, however, 

 there is but a slight, if any exudation of this gunnny substance, 

 hence one cannot so readily detect its presence on these trees. It is 

 thus more difficult to find the borers in plum or prune trees, and 

 this makes it harder to conibat them in these trees. 



The Story of the Peach-tree Borer's Life. 



Xot many creatures pass through such varied, complicated and 

 interesting experiences in their life-time as do the insects. The 

 most common of them, those that we meet ahnost every day, could 

 unfold to us many a weird and fascinating tale of their haps and 

 mishaps in life could we but patiently watch their daily life. It is 

 a curious fact, however, that when most of us see an insect of anv 

 kind our first impulse is to devise some method of taking its life, 

 or literally of committing an insecticide. And especially is this true 

 when the insect happens to be one which injures our plants, as does 

 the peach-tree borer. But few peach growers stop to marvel over 

 the wonderful transformations exhibited by this insect in passing 

 through the four stages — the egg, the " borer " or larva, the p.upa 

 and the adult moth — of its life-cycle. These four stages are illus- 



