APPLE TREE BORER. 421 



different years'. They cease boring in the fall of the third year, 

 and transformation takes place during the months of May and 

 June of the fourth year, so they are ready to leave as stated above. 



I do not know how soon they commepce laying their eggs after 

 leaving the tree, but I am confident they do so by the latter part 

 of July, for I have seen their mark and destroyed the egg early 

 in August; and by the twentieth of August the young borers are 

 at work. I think it is certain, though not generally believed, that 

 they, or some of them at least, lay a second litter of eggs later in 

 the season. I have frequently been puzzled while hunting for 

 young borers in June, to know why some of them should be very 

 small, apparently just hatched, and close to the outer skin of the 

 bark, while others, much larger, had gone through the bark ; 

 and yet both were evidently from eggs of the year previous. I 

 came to the conclusion that there must be two litters of eggs, and 

 that those of the second litter do not hatch till the following 

 spring. At length I was confirmed in that belief by finding a 

 beetle on the trunk of a tree, close to the ground, evidently de- 

 positing eggs, on the last day of September. And this year I 

 found another on the twenty-sixth day of August. I could see 

 the mark it made in the bark, and on cutting, carefully, found the 

 egg. At the same time, and in the same tree, I found a 3'oung 

 borer, less than a quarter of an inch long. This, doubtless, was 

 from an egg laid early in the season. I have had other, aud to my 

 mind conclusive evidence, that the eggs are not all laid early in 

 the season, and that those laid late do not hatch till the following 

 spring. 



Then, if eggs are laid as early in the season as July, and as late 

 as the last of September, whatever means are used to prevent 

 their being placed at the collar of the tree, should be applied as 

 early as the middle of July, and kept in good condition till 

 October. Then we have all the rest of the year to hunt the young 

 larvae and dig them out, before they do serious injury to the trees, 

 though it is a trifling job, requiring but a few moments to a tree, 

 if attended to properly and in season. 



The best means that I can devise for safety, is to put something 

 round that part of the tree to protect it for several inches above 

 the ground. Almost anything will answer. It may be old rags, 

 old bootlegs, sheathing paper, a plaster made of clay, sods, or 

 even a small mound of earth. The beetle runs down the trunk, 

 and lays its eggs close to the ground. If the ground is dry and 



