586 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



SOME FRUIT INSECT PESTS AND THEIK TREATMENT 



By MR. FRED JOHNSON, Bureau of Entomology, WasJiington, D. C. 



The investigation of grape insect pests in Erie county, Pennsyl- 

 vania, was undertaken at the request oi' vineyardists of. that section 

 in the spring of 11)07 and this work has continued without inter- 

 ruption to the present time. For the past five years the Bureau of 

 Entomology has had three men in the field during the season of in- 

 sect activity. A part of this work was carried on in co-operation 

 with the Pennsylvania State Department of Agriculture at Harris- 

 burg which during the seasons of 1908 and 1909 sent a man to as- 

 sist in carry out field e:?periments and demonstration woik on the 

 grape-root-worm and in addition bearing a part of the expense in- 

 volved in this field work. 



The insect which was occasioning genuine alarm to the vineyard- 

 ists at the outset of this investigation was the grape-root-worm, 

 Fidia viticida. The feeling of apprehension with which the grape 

 growers viewed the inroads of this pest upon their vineyards was not 

 without warrant for within the 15 years preseding this date the in- 

 juries of the grape-root-worm had reduced several hundred acres 

 of vineyard in Ohio to an almost unprofitable state of production. 

 It had also Avrought a gieat deal of damage to the vineyards of 

 Chautauqua county, N. Y. Although a great deal of experimental 

 work had been undertaken against this insect by Prof. F. M. Web- 

 ster in Ohio, Prof. M. V. Slingerland and Dr. E. P. Felt in New 

 York there was still considerable uncertainty as to the most desitable 

 and practicable methods of control. 



The investigation was taken up by the Bureau of Entomology 

 with a view to making a thorough study of the life history and 

 habits of the insect and to ascertain and to demonstrate, if possible, 

 the most practical methods of control. In order to obtain this data 

 the investigation was carried on for a period of three consecutive 

 seasons. During this time studies were made of the habits and 

 transformation of the larva in the soil to determine the date at 

 which the transformation to the pupa takes place, the length of the 

 pupal stage, and the position of the pupae in the soil, for it is in 

 this stage that many individuals may be destroyed by stirring the soil 

 about the base of the vines either with a horse lioe or by hand. It 

 was also important to know the time at which the beetles emerge 

 from the soil and commence to feed upon the foliage of the vine 

 since at this stage the insect is susceptible to treatment by the appli- 

 cation of a poison spray to the foliage. It was further desirable to 

 know approximately how many days the beetles feed upon the foli- 

 age before the females commenced to deposit eggs since the object 

 of the poison spray application is to rid the vine of the beetles be- 

 fore the eggs are deposited. Our observations indicate that the fe- 

 males feed on the average about ten days before depositing eggs 

 so that there is ample time to spray the vines with a poison if the 

 vineyardist has his spraying equipment in readiness to make the ap- 

 plication immediately after the appearance of the first beetles upon 

 the vines. 



