252 



STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and peach are so injured that they drop from the trees, while the presence 

 of the worms in ripe cherries not only ruins those containing them, but 

 renders the others objects of suspicion. 



The perfect insect is a grayish-black beetle about one sixth of an inch 

 long, with a hump upon each wing cover and a short curved snout, which 

 is turned back beneath the thorax when not in use. 



The insects appear about the time the trees blossom (sometimes a few 

 days before), and, as soon as the fruits form, deposit one or more eggs in 

 each. With the snout a small hole is made, upon the side of the fruit, 

 and a cavity is excavated just under the edge of the skin, in which an egg is 

 deposited. To cause the growth of this part of the- fruit to stop and thus 

 to prevent the egg from being crushed, the beetle makes a crescent-shaped 

 cut (thus c) around the egg. In this mark we have an infallible 

 sign of the work of this insect. Ovipositing continues for about ten days, 

 from five to ten being deposited daily. 



The eggs generally hatch in from four to seven days, the larvse being small, 

 white grubs. They feed upon the flesh and quickly eat in to the stone, 

 around which they feed. They reach full size in from three to five weeks, 



and the fruits are often so injured that they 

 fall to the ground before this time. When 

 full grown, the larvae emerge fi'om the fruit 

 and enter the ground to the depth of five 

 inches, where they change to pupse, and at 

 the end of from four to six weeks become 

 fully developed beetles. In this form they 

 pass the winter hidden under the rough bark, 

 or other similar protection, and come out in 

 the spring ready for work. The mature 

 beetles, contrary to former belief, feed upon 

 the foliage, and bark, and even eat holes in 

 the youns fruits merely for the purpose of 



alarva. 6pupa. cadalt. dplometnng.^l^^^.^.^g f^^^ ^^^^ the life history aS 



given above, various preventive remedies are self-evident. It will 

 always be well to have all fruit as it falls eaten by hogs or sheep, 

 while poultry are quite useful in a plum orchard. In thinning the fruit 

 those removed can readily be dropped into baskets and then burned. 

 Frequent cultivation at the time the insects are entering the ground will 

 destroy many of them, and fall plowing will also be beneficial. If the 

 trunks of the trees are washed in the early spring with kerosene emulsion 

 we shall both kill many curculio, as well as other insects, and deprive them 

 of a hiding place under the bark, as the growth will be less likely to crack. 

 As a rule, however, this will not suffice, and other remedies must be 

 resorted to. The most efPectual is the shaking or jarring of the trees at 

 the time the insects are depositing their eggs. While the curculio may fly 

 from tree to tree during the day, in the early morning they are not active. 

 and if disturbed they generally fall upon their backs and "play possum.'" 

 By jarring the trees at this time they are thrown down and can be caught 

 upon sheets. A screen is made from eight to twelve feet square by tack- 

 ing cotton cloth upon a light frame-work, with an opening in one side 

 large enough to admit the body of the trees, or two narrow frames may be 

 used, one upon each side of the trees. Another form of screen is often 

 made by tacking strips of wood to two opposite sides of a square of cloth 



Fig. 7.— Plum Cuboulio, 



