302 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



HOW TO FIGHT THE CODLING MOTH. 



The codling- moth seems to have ravaged orchards for twenty centuries 

 before anyone recorded any suggestions by which it might be checked.* 

 During the past seventy-five years, however, so many schemes have been 

 devised that it would require volumes to contain all that has been said pro 

 and con concerning them. Believing that oftentimes it is just as valuable 

 to a fruitgrower to know what not to do as it is what to do, and that one 

 method may be more ajiplicable or practicable under certain conditions than 

 another method, we have thought it advisable to briefly discuss all of the 

 so-called "remedies " that we have seen suggested. 



In devising any method for combating an insect foe, the first thing that 

 should be considered is, in what stage, or when is it the most vulnerable to 

 attack y Recommendations for fighting the codling moth include schemes 

 for reaching it in all stages and under all sorts of conditions. Most writers 

 have considered that the insect is not so easily gotten at in either of the 

 shorter stages of its life, that is, in the moth, egg, or pupal stages, there- 

 fore most of the remedial suggestions are directed toward the destruction of 

 it in the caterpillar stage, in which it spends the greater part of its life. 



WHAT CAN BE DONE AGAINST THE MOTHS. 



" Rusticus " said in 1833, that one could drive away the moths in June by 

 making a smoking fire of weeds under valuable trees. This is possible, but 

 hardly probable, and not often practicable. In 1839, Freyer suggested that 

 the best way is to hunt out the moths on the trunk and leaves and kill them. 

 He must have been joking, for we have never yet been able to get sight of 

 the moth on a tree. Ratzeburg condemned the method the next year. 



The insect-catching properties of the flowers of the different species of 

 PhyminthuH have long been known, and there has been considerable discus- 

 sion over the claim made by some that many codling moths were caught in 

 these flowers. It was proposed to train these vines up the trunks of apple 

 trees, surmising that the flowers, by capturing the moths, would thus protect 

 the crop. Conclusive evidence has been recorded to show that these flowers 

 have no attractions for codling moths. 



The fact that many different kinds of moths are often attracted to lights 

 or to alluring baits in large numbers, has led many to believe that the cod- 

 ling moth could also be lured in sufficient numbers to make it pay to build 

 fires or to place trap-lanterns in an orchard, or to hang sweetened or other 

 baits of various kinds in the trees. Many experiments have been tried 

 along this line by such reliable observers as Riley, Cook, and Atkins, and so 

 few codling moths were captured as to conclusively show the entire futility 

 of attempting to check the pest in this way. Many collectors of insects also 

 report very few captures of the moth at their lures or at lights. Most of the 



*Of interest historically, is the fact, that so far as we can discover, the first one tx> 

 oven hint at any remsdial muasare was an American, a Mr. Thatcher. In the seond 

 edition of his American Orchardist, he shrewdly reasons that as the worms are said to 

 spend the winter on the trunks of the trees, it would be well to scrape off all the loose 

 bark and apply Forsyth's wash (consisting of soap-suds, lime, and cow-dung); tbivS 

 would certainly help in reducing the numbers of the pest. 



