442 Report of the Department of Entomology of the 



a spray for the '* flies " and orchardists using this spray invariably 

 had to resort to later sprayings in order to control the insects. 



BANDING TREES TO TRAP PSYLLA " FLIES." 



During the fall of 1910 some experiments were conducted in 

 the orchard of Mr. L. B. Wright of Hilton to determine the practi- 

 cability of using bands on trees as traps for psylla adults. Forty 

 trees were used in the experiments. Strips of building paper about 

 eight inches in width were fastened around the trees in various 

 positions and some were smeared with either tree-tanglefoot or 

 fish glue. Other bands were not coated with adhesives. The glue 

 dried within a few days and later washed from the paper. A few 

 insects were caught on the bands covered with tree-tanglefoot but 

 this material hardened as the cold increased and proved of little 

 value during the fall. In the spring, as the weather became mild, 

 the gummy material softened and on March 21, 1910, some days 

 after the winter adults had emerged, the sticky bands for about 

 two inches from the upper margin were thickly covered with the 

 " flies." Beneath all the papers there were in March thousands 

 of the dead insects. 



The banding of the trees as an adjunct to spraying operations 

 was practised against the psylla " flies " during the fall of 1912 by 

 the Collamer Bros, at Hilton. In this work about 2600 trees were 

 banded with tanglefoot fly-paper, placing the gummy surfaces 

 against the bark. The papers were left on the trees for about 

 three weeks and in November the strips were removed to allow 

 thorough applications of contact sprays to the trees. Many " flies " 

 adhered to the bands but the chief advantage of their use in these 

 orchards seemed to be gained through the providing of a convenient 

 hiding place for the psyllas. Myriads of the insects collected beneath 

 the papers and when the bands were removed the psyllas were 

 easily wetted by an application of a soapy spray. 



From these tests it appeared that the employment of adhesives 

 was not essential to the success of the traps, although some "flies" 

 were caught on the sticky surfaces. The paper strips to which 

 no gummy material was applied provided an attractive shelter 

 for thousands of " flies " and it has seemed that bands of that 

 description would lessen the difficulties attending the combating 

 of the " flies " in the fall. 



