APPLE INSECTS 



167 



may blow these crawling young to neighboring trees, and many 

 of them are doubtless carried to other trees or orchards by other 

 insects and by birds which often go from tree to tree. The 

 crawling young have been found on the bodies of black lady- 

 bird beetles, black ants, grasshoppers, Chrysopa adults, flies, 

 and beetles, these insects thus furnishing ideal steeds or " flying 

 machines " on which the scale 

 may ride to new pastures. 



While the San Jose scale is one 

 of the greatest insect scourges 

 that the fruit industry has ever 

 encountered, it has taught some 

 valuable lessons. Nurserymen 

 are growing and shipping cleaner, 

 healthier, better stock. Fruit 

 growers are selecting their trees 

 with greater care, and giving 

 each tree individual attention in 

 the orchard, an invaluable fea- 

 ture in orcharding. Many have 

 been forced into spraying, which 

 most progressive fruit growers 

 find to be one of the best pay- 

 ing operations in orchards. The 

 scale is so small and so difficult to reach and kill, that the efforts 

 to successfully combat it have resulted in better spray mix- 

 tures, machinery and methods not only for this scale, but for 

 other insect and fungous enemies of orchards. Fruit growers 

 in general are spraying more skillfully, more easily and more 

 effectively, and many of them are satisfactorily controlling this 

 tiny but terrible foe — the San Jose scale. 



While the San Jose scale is beset by many natural enemies, 

 its marvelous fecundity usually enables it to develop in in- 

 jurious numbers in spite of them. The following nine species 



Fig. 169. 



Pear infested with San 

 Jose scale. 



