1903 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Gd 



which, in some varieties more than in others, were much distorted and disfigured, so as to give 

 very much the appearance of apples which had been stung by the small British Columbian 

 Apple Fruit Miner (Argyresthia conjvgella, Z.). Wherever the fruit is punctured, growth 

 ■ceases, and, with the subsequent increase in the size of the fruit, these places remain as pits or 

 depressions, rendering the fruit unsightly and unfit for the market. This injury, however, is 

 not a common one, but it points to the advisability of spraj ing trees for the Apple Aphis, should 

 the fruit, when forming, be found to be badly infested. Injury by the Apple Aphis, in Ontario 

 at any rate, is very seldom serious enough to bearing trees to make the expense of spraying for 

 chat insect alone advisable. On nursery stock for bu Iding it must be attended to when abun- 

 dant, or injury will be done. Should this be necessary at any time, the best remedy is to 

 spray the trees thoroughly with whale-oil potash soap, using one pound to six gallons of 

 water. The addition of a pound or two of home grown tobacco to a barrel of mixture is 

 beneficial but is not actually necessary, because the green-colored plant-lice, such as the Apple 

 Aphis, are more easily killed than the black varieties, as the Black Cherry and Peach Aphides. 



The Plum Aphis {Aphis prunifolii. Fitch) appeared early in the season, and it was thought 

 it would do much harm, but suddenly there was so great a diminution in the numbers of the 

 insects from the increase in their natural parasites, that practically no loss resulted. The same 

 state of affairs also prevailed in Western Ontario with the Black Cherry Aphis. 



The Oyster-shell Bark-louse (Mytilaspis ulmi, L.) is still one of the worst enemies of the 

 apple grower in all parts of the Dominion, and is particularly destructive in the eastern part 

 of our province. In the south-west it seems to be kept in check to a large extent by the 

 minute chalcid parasite, ApheUnus tnytilaspidis, LeBaron. The presence of this parasite in a 

 colony of the scales can be detected by the minute round holes left by the flies in the top of 

 the old scales, from which the parasites have eaten their way out. This little parasite does 

 good work in all parts of the Dominion from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; but, strange to say, 

 notwithstanding the enormous abundance of the scale, it is very intermittent in its appear- 

 ance. In the Maritime Provinces the Oyster-shell Bark-louse is to a certain extent kept in 

 check by a parasitic fungus similar to that which destroys the San Jose Scale in Florida. The 

 remedies for the Oyster-shell Bark-louse have been frequently given ; they consist of high 

 cultivation of infested trees and spraying in winter with lime wash, followed in summer with 

 kerosene emulsion. Where trees have been treated with the limesulphur-and-salt wash they 

 have been thoroughly cleaned of this scale. 



The San Jose Scale (Aspidiotus peniiciosus, Comst.) — I regret to say that the San Jose 

 Scale situation is very little better to-day than it was a year ago. 'I he insect, although 

 it has not spread widely beyond the limits already recorded, has most decidedly increased 

 in individual orchards and is doing an enormous amount of harm. The Federal Gov- 

 ernment fumigation Stations have watctied most jealously every shrub and tiee which has 

 been imported that was in the least likely to bring into the country fresh importations 

 of the scale ; and it is but just to state that, up to the present time, not a single instance has 

 been found of new infestation from stock brought into the country or of a live scale upon any 

 tree which has been fumigated. Many cf our fruit growers, recognizing the importance of 

 remedial treatment, have sprayed their trees with remedies which have been recommended and 

 have obtained paying results. The remedies which have been used to the greatest extent, are 

 those which were recommended at the San Jose Scale conference held at the annual meeting 

 of the Entomological Society of Ontario in 1901, viz. whale-oil soap, petroleum, and fumiga- 

 tion, or the lime-lulphur-and-salt wash ; these have been recommended by Mr. Geo. E. Fisher 

 as Inspector of San Jose Scale. Quite recently experiments have been made with a carbolic 

 wash made by Mr. G. A. McBain, of St. Catharines, and also with a lime and sulphur wash in 

 "which the sulphur was combined with the lime by means of caustic potash. Both of thes® 

 remedies are claimed to have given good results, and many have tried the former during the 



