INSECTS INJURIOUS TO PEACH, PLUM AND CHERRY 579 



just how important is not yet known. For trees less than five 

 years old use a smaller amount of the material and remove it 

 from the trees in a shorter time; or do not use it at all on such 

 trees until more information is available. 



Mounding of the soil about the trunk, wrapping the trunk 

 and most of the washes tried, have not proven satisfactory. 



Preliminary experiments in West Virginia have given excellent 

 results in the control of the borers by the application of soluble 

 oils of the commercial brands, 

 at dilutions of from one to 

 twelve to one to nine. The 

 soil is scraped away from the 

 base of the tree, the crown and 

 lower part of the trunk 

 thoroughly drenched with the 

 oil, applied with a sprayer, and 

 the soil drawn back into place 

 about the tree. 



Mechanical protectors have 

 generally proven to be of little 

 value and in common orchard 

 practice the growers still de- 

 pend very largely on the old 

 fashioned method of "worm- 

 ing," that is, removing the 

 borers from the trees by hand. 

 This may be done in the 

 spring or in the fall. Profes- 

 sor Starnes recommends that, 

 in Georgia, the work be done 

 in the fall since many of the 

 small borers are then in the 

 surface bark and in masses of 



FIG. 510. Work of a single peach 

 borer, natural size: w, b, burrow of 

 borer; g, gummy mass; p, pupa project- 

 ing from cocoon. (After Slingerland.) 



exuded gum and may be easily destroyed while in the spring they 

 are found in better protected situations under the bark. In the 

 North fall worming seems to be less satisfactory. Tools for worm- 

 ing consist of a stout knife and a piece of steel wire, sharpened at 

 one end. Special knives with curved blades are sometimes prefer- 

 red. Some use the ordinary pruning knife and some prefer a 

 blade similar to that of the blacksmith's hook-knife. 



