426 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



DIRECT METHODS. 



1. The flies are very stupid, although they appear otherwise- 

 When resting on the leaves or apples they can readily be taken with a 

 small insect tube or bottle. By placing the mouth cautiously over them, 

 they are not disturbed, and soon crawl inside. We took thirty this 

 way from a single tree in about an hour and a half. Making no allow- 

 ance for mishaps, and supposing a fly lays three hundred eggs, and one- 

 half of the flies are females, the progeny of a single fly the third sea- 

 son would be capable of laying nearly seven million eggs. The killing 

 of even a few flies materially lessens the number and holds the pest in 

 check. 



2. The fact that the larva? do not leave the fruit before it is ripe, 

 and are still found in abundance in the windfalls, would indicate the 

 most vulnerable points in the life-history of the insect, and suggest 

 two methods of checking the pest, viz. : Taking care that the larva} in 

 the gathered fruit be not allowed to transform; and destroying the 

 windfalls. The apples gathered for home consumption and for market 

 may contain many maggots, as our observations show the larva? are still 

 in the fruit when ripe. The chances that these larva? find the conditions 

 for development are much less than those that go into the ground from 

 the windfalls, but the pest may be spread through marketed fruit or be 

 perpetuated from fruit stored or used at home. 



DESTROYING IN STORED APPLES. 



a. Infested apples in market places are a fruitful source of the 

 pest, and fruit dealers should be required to burn or bury all apple re- 

 fuse, and not throw it on the ground. 



b. The maggots in stored apples soon leave them and go into the 

 pupa state in the barrels or bins. If marketed, the pupa? go with the 

 fruit in the barrel and may spread the pest. In bins and barrels in the 

 cellar the pupa? no doubt retain their vitality, and the flies emerge in 

 the spring. As a precaution the bins should be carefully swept, and 

 the barrels shaken into a tight vessel and the refuse buried or burned. 

 Apple refuse from home use should be destroyed and not thrown upon 

 the ground. 



c. The maggots are not able to crawl out of a box, and the refuse 

 from market places, etc., could be thrown into a tight box or barrel, 

 and the maggots prevented from going into the ground. The refuse 

 could occasionally be buried a foot deep. 



