IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME IV 

 Xo. 37 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DE\OTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



MARCH 

 1909 



The Apple Sucker and its Treatment 



B_v Fkki). \'. TnKOBALi), iM.A. 



CONSIDERABLE attention has been called 

 of late to tlie great damage done in 

 parts of England by the apple sucker, 

 notably in Worcestershire, Kent, Cambridge- 

 shire and Lincolnshire. 

 This has not been due 

 to any foreign impor- 

 tation or home artificial 

 distribution, or even any 

 very marked abnormal 

 increase in their num- 

 bers. I t i s m a i n 1 }• 

 because growers did not 

 notice these small insects 

 which can do such incal- 

 culable mischief ; they 

 have noticed the 



damage, however, and 

 too frequently have 

 attributed it to frost. 

 A casual glance would 

 have at once revealed 

 the true cause of the 

 loss. In some districts, 

 perhaps, we are 

 suffering from an ex- 

 cessive wave ot vitality, 

 just as we again and 

 again do with many 

 insects and fungi, but its 

 recent prominence is 



mainly due to the greater interest taken by 

 growers in the various enemies they have to 

 fight than to abnormal increase in numbers. 

 Owing to the presence of the apple sucker in 

 Ireland this article has been written at the 

 request of Irish Gardening. 



The apple sucker belong^s to a family of insects known 

 as Psyllidae, small creatures related to the plant lice or 

 aphides. No less than twenty-eig-lit different kinds occur 



Ova of Apple Sicker, (x 2.) 



in Great Britain and Ireland. The apple sucker {PsvUa 

 mali) is one of the commonest. The egg's of this apple 

 pest are laid in autumn on the shoots and spurs of all 

 varieties of apples, and probably also on the wild crab- 

 apple. By far the larger number are placed on and 

 around the leaf-scar 

 ridges, some at the base 

 of buds, others amongst 

 the fine hairs on the year's 

 growth. The eggs are quite 

 small, but can be easily 

 seen with the naked eye. 

 In colour they are at first 

 snowy white, but later 

 assume a dull yellow or a 

 rusty red hue. They are 

 elongated oval in form, 

 somewhat pointed at each 

 end ; at one pole is a thin 

 process which bends under 

 the shell. They are firmlv 

 fixed to the tree. The old 

 egg shells remain for two 

 or three years on the trees. 

 These are apparently the 

 ova, supposed to have been 

 destroj'ed by winter washes. 

 Oviposition takes place 

 from September until the 

 beginning of November. 

 So numerous have I seen 

 ihem in some plantations 

 tliat the spurs have had 

 quite a pale appearance. 

 The ova hatch out about 

 the time the buds are 

 bursting or are ready 

 to burst. In England they have been found to hatch 

 from the 24th of .March onwards until the 27th of 

 April. They do not all hatch out at the same time on 

 any one tree, and there is much difference in time 

 according to the variety of apple. For instance, on the 

 Ecklinville they hatch out much sooner than on the 

 Bramley Seedling, and about a week sooner on the 

 Blenheim Orange than on the Wellington. 



The eggs give rise to small, flat, dirty, yellow larva;, 

 with dark markings and bright red eyes, which are 



