1902 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 17 



portion of equal parts by weight ; in warmer weather five parts of resin to three of oil would be 

 required. A space of six inches or more at a convenient height was scraped on rough-barked 

 apples and the surface made as smooth as possible. The mixture while warm was applied to 

 the bark with a brush, a strip around the tree two inches wide, which spread to four. The 

 heavy bark of the apples soon absorbed this first application, which was promptly renewed. In 

 the course of the season it was found necessary to treat the apples three times and the 

 plums twice. A few moths were moving when the treating was commenced, and some of these 

 no doubt had already reached the branches. As the season advanced and thousands upon 

 thousands of the sluggish egg-laden moths became entangled in the wax, the situation was 

 extremely interesting. On one small plum one hundred and fifty moths were counted, and on 

 some of the larger apples the number of moths captured, both male and female, was too many 

 to count. (Fig. 3.) During the spring a very close 

 watch was kept, and as there was no movement, I 

 have concluded that the infe'tation was wholly of 

 the fall variety. As the males were made prisoners 

 if their wings but touched the wax, there was little 

 and probably no copulation, and Dr. Fletcher has 



explained that the eggs are likely to be fertilized ^'s- 3. Fall Cankerwonii.^^ . 



only in passing the ovary. However this may be, 



so far as we could observe no eggs hatched, but remained in the body of the parent still held 

 fast by the wax. Some who used this method collected and burned the dead females, but in 

 our case there seemed no necessity. My interest in this matter intensified as the season for 

 spraying came and went with this innumerable host of closely-held captives on the trunks of the 

 trees and no larvas in the top to spray. The men say there were not as many worms in the 

 entire orchprd this year as were on some individual trees last year. This way of treating 

 Canker-worm is not new, but is certainly not generally understood. Mr. O. T. Springer, of 

 Burlington, who has practised this method successfully for years, assisted me with valuable 



suggestions. 



Pear Psylla. 



Ed'-ly in Sej)" ember my attention was called to an attack of Pear Psylla in an orchard 

 belonging to Mr. Joseph Tweddle, of Fruitland. A block ot 125 eight or ten-year-old pear 

 trees was involved. The varieties aff'ected are those in common cultivation, the Bartletts 

 suffering most. Nearly the whole of the block was swarming with wasps, attracted -by honey- 

 dew that was dripping from the foliage. The wood was covered "with a black fungus which 

 had developed in honey-dew exuded by nymphs attacking the wood. 



At the time of my first visit the foliage was largely deserted and the nymphs were con- 

 centrated on the wood, particularly the young growth, and the energy of the trees was appar- 

 ently so reduced as to seriously affect next season's crop, no matter what treatment is given. 

 Some years ago Mr. Freeman, of Freeman, lost an orchard of nearly four hundred large dwarf 

 Duchess from Psylla. He tried to destroy the insects with kerosene emulsion, but used it of 

 too little strength, which had no efi"ect whatever. At home we always have some Psylla, but 

 it is never there in sufficient quantity to necessitate treatment. 



In the worst afl'ected portions of Mr. Tweddle's orchard the foliage was so reduced as to 

 make treatment easy, and I advised an application of crude petroleum emulsion, 1 in 10, 

 which would kill nearly all of the nymphs and stop the dram on the trees. We subsequently 

 treated a couple of the trees with the emulsion ourselves, and the efieet was even better than 

 I anticipated. This, followed by a thorough treatment with lime and sulphur in winter, will 

 subdue the pest. As the eggs are deposit'^d very early in spring, the winter treatment should 

 not be delayed too long. 

 2 EN. 



