36 Bulletin 172. 



few puparia of the pest might be carried away in the soil adhering 

 to tlie roots of the nursery stock. 



As many of tlie maggots emerge from the fruits, after they reacli 

 the consumer's liand, the insect may thus obtain a foothokl in new 

 locahties. It is quite possible that the insect may be more readily 

 and widel}' spread in this manner than in any other. 



Doubtless the pest will spread quite slowly from tree to tree and 

 thus from orchard to orchard, as the adult insects are slow in their 

 movements and are not long-fliers. This is a very important fact 

 for it makes the checking of this new cherry jjest largely mi indi- 

 mdual matter^ to he worked out independently hy each cherry-gro'wer. 



Discussion of Remedial Measures. 



It is to be hoped that this new cherry pest is not widely distrib- 

 uted, or that it will never become a serious factor in cherry grow- 

 ing, because it will prove a very difficult pest to control, ^'^e have 

 not had time to test any remedial measures, hence can only suggest 

 possible methods, drawn from our experience in combating other 

 insects, from what we know of the habits of the insect, but more 

 especially from the experience of fruit growers in Australia, South 

 Africa and Europe, where similar fruit-flies are serious drawbacks 

 to fruit-growing. 



Apparently there is no possible chance of getting at the insect 

 with a spray of any kind while it is in the egg, in the maggot, or in 

 the puparium stages. The Q^<g is out of reach beneath the skin, in 

 the flesh ; the maggot spends practically all its life inside the fruit, 

 only a day or two is spent in getting from the fruit into the soil and 

 changing into a puparium ; and this puparium would doubtless be 

 impervious to any liquid applied to the soil in such quantities as not 

 to spoil the soil or injure the tree. 



If the maggots caused the infested cherries to fall prematurel}-, 

 or so affected them as to render it easy to discover which fruits were 

 infested, then one could do much toward controlling the pest by 

 removing such fruits from the trees or by picking up the " wind- 

 falls " and destroying them. This latter method can be successfully 

 employed against the apple maggot, which does cause the apples to 

 drop prematurely and which rarely, if ever, leaves the fruit until it 



