272 FRUIT INSECTS 



Treatment. 



The best results in the control of the peach-tree borer in com- 

 mercial orchards are, as a rule, obtained by digging out the borers 

 with a knife or some similar instrument, after which the trunk 

 is treated with some good protective wash and the earth 

 mounded up around the tree to a height of six to eight inches. 

 Some successful growers rely entirely on the digging-out and 

 mounding methods and omit the wash. Where the pest is at 

 all troublesome the trees should be gone over carefully twice 

 a year ; once as late as convenient in the fall and again the first 

 part of June. In digging out the borers the earth is first re- 

 moved from around the base of the tree to a depth of four or 

 five inches when the larger burrows will be indicated by conspic- 

 uous masses of gum. By scraping the bark with a knife or brush 

 most of the smaller ones can be easily located. Particularly 

 in the fall many of the borers are on the surface of the bark, 

 covered merely by a mass of gum, where they are easily found 

 and destroyed. To get at the larger borers in their burrows 

 in the bark and sapwood considerable cutting may be necessary, 

 but if it is done carefully and mostly in the direction of the 

 grain of the wood, the wound soon heals and little or no injury 

 is done the tree. 



After the borers have been dug out in June the earth should 

 be replaced at once and mounded up around the trunk to a 

 height of eight or ten inches. This forces the moths to deposit 

 their eggs higher on the trunk and causes the larvae to enter the 

 bark farther from the roots, where it is easier to locate and de- 

 stroy them. The combination of the digging-out and mound- 

 ing methods is the cheapest and most practicable way of con- 

 trolling the peach-tree borer. The number of borers can be 

 kept below the danger limit by this system alone if the work 

 be thoroughly and regularly done, and if there are no neglected 

 orchards near by to furnish moths for a constant reinfesta- 

 tion. 



