6o STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



vast amounts expended for insecticides and the labor of applying 

 them. 



The codling moth or apple worm, perhaps the most destruc- 

 tive insect in this country today, may well serve us for a begin- 

 ner. This pest was early imported from Europe and is now at 

 home wherever apples are grown in this country or Canada. 

 It causes an annual loss of from 25 to 75% of the apple crop, as 

 well as of many other fruits. The annual damage carefully 

 worked out for three of our large fruit growing states is as 

 follows: In Illinois, $2,375,000; in Nebraska, $2,000,000; in 

 New York, $3,000,000. 



Its life history is as follows. The eggs are laid singly upon 

 the young apples, and from these eggs hatch the larvae, which 

 eat their way into and destroy the fruit. In three weeks the 

 larvae, the so called white "worms," eat their way out through 

 the side of the apple and either crawl out on the branches or 

 spin down to the ground. In either event they finally reach the 

 trunk of the tree and pupate under the bark scales. About the 

 middle of July the adult moths appear in vast numbers and a 

 second brood of eggs is laid. Many of the larvae from these 

 are gathered in the fall with the apples, but enough escape in the 

 windfalls and discarded fruit to re-infest every bark scale with 

 another pupa. In the southern states two and even three broods 

 are raised each season, but all pass the chrysalis stage in the 

 crevices of the bark. 



Now as these insects in the imago stage are night-flying and 

 protectively colored, the adults for the most part escape the 

 birds. Bats, indeed, destroy vast quantities of them, but as bats 

 are not birds, they do not fall into the province of this paper. 



I have said that the codling moth passes the third stage of its 

 existence in the crevices of the bark upon the trunk of the tree. 

 Now nature has fitted a whole series of birds for a tree-trunk 

 life, and they cannot acquire their subsistence anywhere else. 

 Such birds are the woodpeckers, nuthatches and tree creepers, 

 while other birds like the sparrows, bluebirds, and chickadees 

 also glean from the trunks. 



The downy woodpecker, the avowed enemy of the codling 

 moth, is with us all the year round. His whole life is given up 

 to the destruction of insects that do injury to the trees. When- 

 ever and wherever you see him, you will find him searching for 



