Home Nature-Study Course'. 



this door some tiirie before it is ready to leave the apple and plugs it with a mas^ 

 of debris fastened together with the silk. As it leaves the apple the remnants of 

 this plug may be seen streaming out of the opening. Often also there is a mass 

 of waste pellets pushed out by the young larva from its burrow as it enters the 

 apple. Thus it injures the looks of the apple from the outside at both entrance and 

 exit. If the apple has not received infection by lying next to another rotting apple 

 it almost always first begins to rot around the burrow of the worm, especially 

 near the place of exit. The larva injures the fruit in the following ways : the apples 

 are likely to be stunted and fall early; the apples rot about the injured places 

 and thus cannot be stored successfully; the apples thus injured look unattractive 

 and, therefore, their market value is lessened; wormy apples packed in barrels 

 with others will rot and contaminate all the neighboring apples. The codling 

 moth also attacks pears and sometimes peaches. It has been carefully estimated 

 that every year the codling moth does three million dollars worth of injury to the 

 apple and pear crops in New York State. Think of paying three million dollars 

 a year for the sake of having wormy apples! 



The larvae usually leave the apples before winter. If the apples have fallen they 

 crawl up to the tree and there make their cocoons beneath the loose bark; but 

 if they leave the apples while they are on the trees they spin a thread and swing 

 down. If carried into the storeroom or placed in barrels they seek quarters in 

 protected crevices. In fact, while the)?- particularly like the loose bark of the 

 apple trees, they are likely to build their cocoons on nearby fences or on brush 

 where they can find the needed protection. The cocoon is made of fine but rather 

 rough silk which is spun from a gland near the mouth of the caterpillar; the cocoon 

 is not beautiful, although it is smooth inside. It is usually spun between a loose 

 bit of bark and the body of the tree; but after making it the insect seems in no 



hurry to 

 change its 

 conditio n 

 and remains 

 a quite live- 

 ly cater- 

 pillar until 

 spring. It is 

 while the 

 codling lar- 

 vae are in 

 their winter- 

 q u a r ters 

 that our 

 bird friends 

 of the win- 

 er, the nut- 

 h a t c h es, 

 w o o d p eck- 

 ers, and 



c ii 1 ck^-dcGs 

 Almost too late to spray. The apples on each side have calyx lobes ' 



drawn 7iearly together. The pear in the middle still has calyx cavity destroy 

 open. them in 



