8o Commercial Gardening 



TREATMENT. Nothing but hand picking the flagging shoots before the 

 moths escape, and the pruning in winter of the parts with blistered area, 

 and burning the same, does any good. 



Apple-blossom Weevil (Anthonomus pomorum). This small weevil, 

 which is only \ in. long, is the cause of very serious loss to Apple growers. 

 It occurs in Kent, Surrey, Cambridgeshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, 

 &c. It is the cause of so-called " capped blossoms " (fig. 344). 



The beetle is ashy grey, with a pale V-shaped area on the wing cases. 

 It can fly, but is not very active on the wing. The female bores a hole by 

 means of her long proboscis in the small blossom buds, and in each deposits 



a single egg. This changes into a 

 creamy-coloured footless larva, which 

 feeds on the inside of the blossom, 

 which does not open, but which later 

 turns brown and dies. Still in the 

 blossom the maggot changes to a pallid 

 pupa with dark eyes, and then the 

 beetle hatches out, and escapes from 

 the capped blossom by eating out a 



Fig. 344,-Appie blossom weevil (Anthonomm round hole in the side. The beetles 

 pomorum) nat. size and magnified live right through the summer on the 



trees, and in winter they hibernate 



under rough bark, moss, lichen, &c., on trees in and around the planta- 

 tions. It sometimes attacks the Pear. 



PREVENTION. Old trees should be cleansed in winter by spraying with 

 either caustic soda wash or lime-and-salt wash, so as to destroy their winter 

 quarters. The beetles may also be jarred off on to sheets or boards covered 

 with tar when they are seen to have started to lay their eggs. 



Apple Sawfly (Hoplocampa testudinea). This Sawfly larva is very 

 frequent in apples, and is often mistaken for the Codlin Maggot. It can 

 be told from the latter by having more than four pairs of sucker feet, and 

 by its eating out larger chambers in the young apples. A small hole is 

 formed to the outside of the fruitlets, and through this is passed out a 

 brownish liquid and excrement. The Sawfly appears when the Apples are 

 in blossom. The female lays her eggs deep in the blossoms; as a rule, one 

 only in each flower. The male and female both have four transparent 

 wings and dark-and-yellow bodies, and are about the size of the Goose- 

 berry Sawfly. 



The larva will leave one fruitlet and eat its way into another, several 

 fruitlets often being spoiled by one larva. By the middle of July the 

 larvae are mature, and have fallen to the ground, which they enter to 

 winter in. In the soil they form silken and earthen cocoons, and in spring 

 they pupate. 



TREATMENT. All that can be done is to hand-pick the attacked fruitlets 

 as soon as they show signs of invasion, and burn them. In this manner 

 it can be cleared out of gardens and plantations, if done thoroughly. 



