CHAPTER VIII 



PEACH INSECTS 



While the peach easily succumbs to attacks of the San Jose 

 scale, the loss occasioned by this insect is not as great as that 

 produced by either the plum curculio or the peach-tree borers. 

 The curculio is exceedingly destructive in the Sjuth, owing to 

 the fact that it is an important factor in the distribution of 

 brown rot spores. The control of the curculio on the peach is 

 discussed on page 248. The foliage of the peach is very easily 

 injured by spray mixtures and one must be especially careful 

 in making applications of arsenicals. 



The Peach-tree Borer 



Sanninoidea exitiosa Say 



Wherever the peach is grown in the United States and Canada 

 east of the Rocky Mountains it is subject to the attack of this 

 native American borer, the larva of a beautiful steel-blue clear- 

 wing moth. With the exception of the San Jose scale it is the 

 most serious pest with which the northern peach grower has 

 to contend, while in the South it is surpassed in importance 

 only by the plum curculio. Quaintance in 1909 estimates the 

 loss occasioned by peach-tree borers at 6 million dollars. Trees 

 of all ages from nursery stock to the last relics of abandoned or- 

 chards are subject to attack ; young trees are often girdled and 

 killed outright, while older trees are so weakened that they are un- 

 able to produce good crops of fruit. Trees whose vitality has been 



