103 

 INSECT NOTES FROM GEORGIA FOR THE YEAR 1903. 



WiLMtiN NfwfLL, Atldutd. (lit. 



As ill previous j^ears, the San Jose scale lias been the most serious 

 pest in Georgia and lias received hy far the most attention. Experi- 

 ments eoiMliicted by W. M. Scott, former State entomologist, have 

 shown the limt'-suliihur-.salt wash to be more effective and much safer 

 than the treatments with crude oil and kerosene. As a result, the.se 

 latter treatments have been for the most part abandoned by the com- 

 mercial i)eacli growers, and the great majority of scale-infested 

 orchards in the State will the coming winter l)e spraj'ed with the lime- 

 sulphur-salt. In many of the larger orchards outfits have been pre- 

 pared for boiling the mixture by means of steam, these outfits in 

 many cases using boilers of from 15 to 30 horsepower. Several modi- 

 fications of the lime-sulphur-salt wash have been tested, but noue 

 have been found as effective as the regular formula of 30 pounds 

 lime, '20 pounds sulphur, L") pounds salt, and GO gallons of water. 



The colony of Asiatic lady beetles {Chilocorus siitiiUs) secured b}' 

 Professor Scott from the Division of Entomologj^ at Washington, D. C, 

 in August, lOOi', and introduced in a scale-infested oi-chard at ^lar- 

 shallville, (4a., has increased to a remarkable extent during the past 

 season. A number of colonies have been sent to other parts of the 

 State as well as to entomologists in other States. Dui-ing the latter 

 part of the summer their beneficial work could be plainly .seen in the 

 Marshallville orchard. They did not, however, become abundant 

 enough to destroy the San Jose scale in proportion to the rapidity with 

 which the latter bred, so that the possibility of their successfully con- 

 trolling this pest is still a matter of conjecture. It was noted that 

 this si)ecies hibernated much earlier than the native species. By 

 October 16 very few adults and no larvfe or pupa* could be found 

 upon the trees, while up to November 1 most native Coccinellids were 

 plentiful. 



Next to the San Jose scale, the peach borer {Sanninoidea exitiosa) 

 is perhajis the most destructive insect pest occurring in the State. 

 Very few peach orciiards can be found in which these insects are not 

 abundant. NO effective remedy — aside from the tedious and expen- 

 sive "worming" — is at hand, and the only chance of effectively 

 re«luciiig the numbers of this pest ajijiears to be in the (Miforcenieiit 

 of stringent laws for bird protection. 



The fruit-tree bark-beetle {Scoh/hus nn/iilosii.s), or " shot-hole borer," 

 as it is more commonly called in the South, occurs generally in the 

 peach orchards of the State, and while the damage is scattered, yet in 

 the aggregate it amounts to considei'abl(». Our observations upon 

 this species in Georgia have not substantiated the poi)ular idea that 

 tliis pest attacks only trees whicli have been weakened from other 



