PEAR AND QUINCE INSECTS 



229 



Pear trees in the nursery are sometimes badly stunted in 

 this way. Sometimes the mites attack the very young 

 fruits (Fig. 208) and fruit stems, causing small pimples, but the 

 injury is usually outgrown and little or no loss results. 



Remedial treatment. 



The leaf blister-mite is not a difficult pest to control. Lime- 

 sulfur, miscible oils and ^^ 

 homemade oil emulsions 

 have all given excellent 

 results ; but lime-sulfur 

 has, on the whole, proved 

 most satisfactory and is 

 now extensively used by 

 commercial orchardists. 

 The insecticide is in- 

 tended to destroy the 

 adults hibernating under 

 the bud scales and can 

 be applied either in the 

 fall after the leaves have 



fallen or in the spring any time before the tips of the leaves 

 begin to show. When used for blister mite alone the lime- 

 sulfur may be applied somewhat weaker than for the San Jose 

 scale ; a dilution of 1 to 10 when the concentrated solution 

 tests 31° Beaume is sufficiently strong. As a rule it is not 

 necessary to spray every year for the control of bHster-mite ; 

 one treatment usually so reduces the number of mites that 

 they do not again become abundant enough to cause serious 

 injury for several years. 



References 



Fig 



— Young fruits deformed 

 blister-mite. 



the 



N. Y. (Geneva) Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 283. 1906. 

 N. Y. (Geneva) Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 306. 1908. 



