30 B.C. ExTOJioLoiiic.vL Society. 



.Question : How long do these plants have to be protected before the maggots 

 cease to act? 



Mr. Treherne : The fly will ie laying eggs until September, but probably the 

 plant will be so well esta-blished by the middle of July that further coutrol against 

 it would not be of practical value. 



The President : I will now call on Mr. F. H. Getehell, Vancouver, B.C., for his 

 paper on " Insects of the Lower Fraser Valley." 



NOTES ON SOME INSECTS OF THE LOWER FRASER VALLEY. 



By F. H. GiiTciiELL, Field Inspectok, Pkovinci.il Depabt-ment of Fruit Pests. 



During the past three seasons I have had the opportunity of collecting a few 

 notes on the habits of insects frequenting the orchards of the Lower Fraser Valley. 

 Through the courtesy of my Department I am permitted to give the Society a record 

 of some of the notes obtained under their authorization. Many of the insects I 

 have recorded in my notes have already been well reported in an article by Mr. 

 Treherne in Bulletin 4 of the British Columbia Entomological series, and con- 

 sequently it will not be necessary to deal at any length with any one individual 

 insect. I have, however, several notes of local importance which may well supple- 

 ment the facts already recorded. 



The Woolly Aphis (Eiiosoma lanlgera). 



This insect is found in nearly every orchard in the valley. During the past 

 season I have spent considerable time both in spraying and investigating this insect 

 in the orchard o\^Tied by J. H. Lawrence, Hatzic, which numbered 2,500 trees from 

 four to seven years old. Upon my first inspection I found one corner of the orchard, 

 consisting of about 300 trees, seven-year-olds, badly infested with woolly aphis; 

 the old stem mothers and the young ibrowu aphides having, for the most part, 

 wintered over on the trees. As a result of their work the small limbs and spurs 

 were split and covered with the usual galls. A spray of Black Leaf 40, 1-SOO, and 

 ordinary soap, 2-50, was applied, combined with lime-sulphur. In another set of 

 experiments the lime-sulphur was replaced by soluble sulphur, a new spraying com- 

 pound freshly come on to the market in these parts. The Government Bean power- 

 sprayer, with Friend nozzles, was used at a pressure of 200 lb., and at a moderate 

 estimate 75 per cent, of the aphides were killed at the first spraying. Although it 

 is perhaps a trifle premature to make any definite statements about the relative 

 virtues of the two sprays, lime-sulphur and soluble sulphur, yet I may say that, 

 from this past summer's experiments, I have so far seen no difference in the 

 effective values. 



Twice during the summer they were treated by hand with coal-oil. once 

 Immediately after spraying. They were again sprayed with the machine the second 

 week in August, with Black Leaf 40 from 1-800 to 1-1,000, and whale-oil soap 2-50. 

 During this spraying I found it necessary to leave the district temporarily, but in 

 a week's time I took the work up again. I soon discovered the aphides were 

 migrating to a greater extent than I have ever observed before, and some of the 

 older forms were dying. The date was the first week in September. 



Later I observed a few of the migrants settled on the main bodies of the pear- 

 trees in the neighbouring orchards. This is in itself an interesting observation, 

 but I noted, further, that pear-trees as late as October still contained specimens of 

 woolly aphides on them. These aphides were observed to be quite active when not 

 even disturbed. I .ludged that, as the species does not habitually frequent the pear, 

 they were ill at ease. Besides the movement to the pear, I noticed that a migration 

 also took place to apple-trees where apparently the aphides localized and would 

 remain there until the following year. I have no doubt, further, that many of the 

 migrants, in searching for suitable trees on which to settle, failed to locate, and 



