4 Farmers’ Bulletin 1246. 
Injured trees are, perhaps, more subject to infestation by certain 
diseases, such as root-rot, crown gall, and peach yellows, and are 
certainly less able to withstand periods of drought. 
Infestation of trees by the borer is usually shown by an exudation, 
around the crown, of jellylike gum, more or less mixed with dirt and 
small brown pellets—the 
excrement, or frass, voided 
by the borers in the course 
of their growth (fig. 3). 
This exudation of gum is 
especially evident during 
moist or rainy weather. 
HOW THE INSECT DE- 
VELOPS AND LIVES. 
The peach borer, in the 
course of its life, goes 
through four distinct 
stages—the egg; the larva, 
or borer; the pupa; and the 
adult, or parent moth. 
THE EGG. 
The eggs of the peach 
borer are small and incon- 
spicuous, reddish brown in 
color, oblong inshape, and 
measure about -5 inch in 
length (fig. 4). They are 
deposited rather promis- 
cuously over the trunk, 
limbs, and foliage of the 
peach tree, and many eggs 
are laid on weeds and trash 
or on the ground at or near 
the base of the trees. The 
eggs hatch in about 10 
Fic 1.—The peach borer in its galleries at the crown of the days, though this period 
peach tree. 
may vary somewhat. The 
abundance and destructiveness of the peach borer is due, in 
considerable part, to the fact that the moths are very prolific. 
Observations on the number of eggs deposited by a given female 
show that she may lay as many as 829 eggs, with an average of 
about 400. 
