M7 S Report of the Department of Entomology of the 



Treatment. — The plum curculio is rarely injurious to commercial 

 plantings of apples in New York except where the orchard is adjacent 

 to woods, brush land or other favorable hibernating quarters or to 

 plantings of plums and peaches. The most effective means of 

 combating this pest in apple orchards are spraying with lead arsenate, 

 clean cultivation, tillage, and destruction of windfalls. It is possible 

 to reduce the numbers of the insects in nearby plantings of plums 

 and peaches by jarring the plum or peach trees or by spraying 

 with arsenate of lead just after blossoming. If the infestation is 

 due to the presence of woods or waste land such places should be 

 cleared of the underbrush or burned over 

 during the winter to destroy the hiber- 

 nating insects. 



THE WHITE MARKED TUSSOCK MOTH. 



Hemerocampa leucostigma Sm. & Abb. 



This insect is primarily a shade-tree insect, 

 but in occasional years it appears in destruc- 

 tive numbers in fruit plantings. The cater- 

 pillars attack both fruit and foliage. Pears 

 and apples sustain the greatest injury. In 

 their attacks upon these the caterpillars 

 may eat portions of the skin or gnaw cavi- 

 ties of varying size and depth in the young 

 fruits. The insect lives through the winter 

 in the egg and in this latitude the caterpil- 

 lars hatch sometime during the latter part 

 of May. It takes twentj'-five to thirty-one 

 days for the caterpillars to complete their growth. The insect 

 remains in the pupa stage from ten to fifteen days. At the end of 

 this time the female emerges from the pupa and after mating 

 deposits her eggs upon the discarded cocoon. 



Remedies. — Thoroughly coating the foliage when the " calyx 

 spray " is made for the codling moth just after the petals fall will 

 ordinarily prevent injury. However, if the caterpillars are found to 

 be injurious to the fruit, further damage can be prevented by apply- 

 ing a tobacco spray as directed for the red bug on page 374. A severe 

 outbreak of this pest in fruit orchards can be prevented by collecting 

 and destroying the eggs during the dormant season. The eggs are 

 deposited in clusters and appear as a mass of white froth about 

 one-half inch wide and an inch to an inch and a half long. Most 

 of the clusters of eggs are located in plain view on the trunks and 

 branches of the trees where they may be easily picked off and 

 destroyed. 



Fig. 52. — Curculio Punc- 

 tures on Young Apple. 



