THE CODLING MOTH. 



89 



pears that in the latitude of Ontario the first 

 eggs are not laid until a week or more after 

 the petals have fallen, or ordinarily the last 

 of May and the first half of June, while Goe- 

 the, of Germany, has shown that most of 

 the egg's are laid at night. 



The newly hatched apple worm is so tiny 

 that it can be observed with difficulty, being 

 only about i 16 of an inch in length and 

 semi-transparent. It seldom enters the ap- 

 ple at the place where it hatched out of the 

 •^8'S'» t^^t crawls about till it finds the blossom 

 end or some other partially protected part, 

 and here it takes its first meal, which is a 

 liny portion of the outer surface of the fruit, 

 and then after a few hours it begins to enter 

 the apple. Card found many eggs upon the 

 leaves, and the natural inference is that in 

 such cases the young moth feeds at first 

 upon leaf tissue. These observations all 

 help to make it clear how it is- that spraying 

 the young fruit and the foliage with Paris 

 green is often effective is lessening the 

 ravages of the codling moth. 



The worm sometimes leaves the fruit be- 

 fore it falls, and the worm emerges and 

 seeks a suitable place to transform, either 

 under the loose bark of the trunk or crotch 

 of the tree, or on fences, rubbish piles, or 

 stumps, any where, says Mr. Slingerland, 

 except in the ground. 



In regard the number of broods, Fletcher, 

 of Ottawa, reported in 1895 "that careful 

 observations made during ten years con- 

 vince me that in this part of Canada there is 

 only one regular brood of this insect in the 

 year. This is, I believe, the case as far 

 west as Toronto. In the fruit growing dis- 

 tricts of (South) West Ontario there are 

 two broods, the second brood being invari- 

 ably the most destructive." 



There are a number of insects which prey 

 upon the codling moth, but the birds are the 

 chief friends of the orchardists in this work, 

 especially the downy woodpecker, blue bird, 

 crow, blackbird, kingbird, swallow, sparrow. 



■1 



wren, chick-a-dee and jay. Riley and Walsh 

 state that "almost all the cocoons of the 

 moth that have been constructed in the 

 autumn at the trunks and limbs of apple 

 trees, are gutted of their living tenants by 

 hungry birds, long before the spring opens." 

 "And yet," says Slingerland, "enough 

 codling moths succeed in running the gaunt- 

 let every year, and allow it to take rank as 

 the most destructive apple pest in nearly all 

 parts of the world." 



Trapping the ___^ 



worms by bands ' | 



on the trunks 

 was first prac- 

 ticed by Dr. 

 Trimble in 1864, 

 when he devised 

 his famous hay 

 rope band which 

 was often re- 

 newed, and the 

 old bands full . 

 worms burned 

 up (see P" i i^ . 

 1745)- This was 

 a method much Fig. 1745. The Hay-Rope 

 practiced in Mi- ^^^^ ^^ Operation. 



, . , Reduced from Dr. Trimbles Picture 



chigan between 



1870 and 1880, where it is said a noticeable 



improvement was the result. 



Recently more attention is being given to 

 bands as a means of checking the codling 

 moth, and it has been found more conven- 

 ient to use bands of sacking, as proposed by 

 Mr. Orr, than the old fashioned hay banda- 

 ges. These can easily be applied by driving 

 a tack through the lapped ends or by tying 

 with a cord. During July and August the 

 bands must be examined every ten days and 

 the cocoons destroyed, and the whole ex- 

 pense need not exceed four cents per tree. 

 If as is stated, this will capture half the full 

 grown worms each season, the result would 

 surely be evident in a few years, especially 

 if whole townships were to undertake con- 



