MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. IQIO. 373 

 REMEDIAL MEASURES. 



Destruction of fallen fruit is one of the chief means of com- 

 bating this pest. Where hogs are pastured in the orchard 

 with a view to devouring apple maggots in fallen fruit the cur- 

 culios would be incidentally disposed of. The recommenda- 

 tions that fallen fruit be destroyed commonly conveys no idea 

 of the first fallen apples. The mind turns to the tangible fruits 

 of midsummer and fall, and where the recommendation is fol- 

 lowed the small apples that fall in early summer are entirely 

 ignored. The same small apples are, however, an important 

 factor, and should be considered in any systematic attempt to 

 control the ravages of the plum curculio. 



Fig. 25. Larva (enlarged). 



Fig. 26. 



Fig. 27. 

 Pupa (enlarged). 



Adult (enlarged). 



It does not seem possible for an apple one-fourth inch or 

 less in diameter to supply nourishment enough to bring a larva 

 to full maturity, but it has been learned that larvae can and do 

 develop in just such apples. To gather them would be imprac- 

 ticable, but if clean culture is practiced they and the larvae they 

 contain could be largely destroyed by use of the disk harrow 

 or some other tool that would chop them up or bury them. If 

 the ground is clean and the orchard sufficiently open, so that 

 the sun can shine upon the apples as they lie upon the ground, 

 nothing further is necessary, because direct sunlight upon the 

 apples will kill the contained larvae. Superficial tillage of the 

 surface soil can be commended as an effective method of at- 

 tacking curculio. This tillage should be carried on continu- 

 ously or at frequent intervals for a period of from 30 to 40 

 days, during which the great bulk of the new crop of plum cur- 

 culios is in the ground. The object of tillage is to turn the 

 pupae out, kill some in the process, and expose the rest to the 

 elements and to birds and insects that prey upon them. 



