Proceedings of Seventeenth JSTokmal Institute 255 



SOME INJURIOUS INSECTS 

 Professor P. J. Parrott 



the pear tiirips 



Of special interest to institute workers who are to attend meet- 

 ings in the Hudson River Valley is the new orchard pest known 

 as the pear thrips. For several years it has been very destructive 

 in the region about Germantown, and during the past year it 

 caused severe damage across the Hudson river in pear orchards 

 about Milton and Marlboro. An account of the species is given 

 in Geneva Bulletin 343. The pest is a difficult one to combat be- 

 cause of the nature and suddenness of its attacks. Spraying is 

 the most efficient method of control. The period for effective 

 spraying is during the time when buds are breaking and until 

 they are entirely opened at the tips. The most efficient mixtures 

 are nicotine preparations in combination with an oil emulsion or 

 soap. A very satisfactory formula is three-fourths pint of nicotine 

 solution (40 per cent) in one hundred gallons of water, adding 

 from two to five pounds of soap. Apply the mixture in liberal 

 quantities as a rather coarse, driving spray, holding the nozzles 

 fairly close to the trees in order to force the liquid into the ends 

 of the buds. When petals drop repeat the treatment to destroy 

 the lai:vae. Considerable protection may be afforded to the trees 

 by a heavy application of whitewash as buds are beginning to 

 break at the ends. The whitewash is made by taking eighty 

 pounds of quicklime for each one hundred gallons of wash. This 

 should be strained through fine brass screening before applying. 



THE ROSY APHIS 



This species was much less injurious this season than during 

 the previous year, but in occasional orchards about Spencerport, 

 Wolcott and Geneva there was considerable evidence of the 

 destructive work of this pest. Insects of this character are 

 generally hard pests to combat, and this aphis in particular pre^ 

 sents a series of difficulties which are not usually encountered in 

 a single species. The destructiveness of the rosy aphis is at- 

 tributed to its partiality for blossom and young fruit-clusters, and 

 its habit of multiplying to maximum numbers at the time when 



