86 



the codling moth. The curculio injures the fruic by punct- 

 uring holes through the skin with the snout, both for 

 egg-laying and feeding. The egg punctures are made when 

 the apples are small, while the feeding punctures may be 

 produced at almost any time during the summer. This 

 latter point perhaps explains why some growers are unable 

 to find "worms" in the so-called "side-wormy" apples. 



One class of deformed fruit that is the cause of grave 

 concern on the part of our commercial orchardists are 

 l):tted and misshapen apples, which have recently been 

 found to be the work of red bugs. These insects have been 

 very abundant in many orchards in Western New York and 

 in the Hudson River Valley. Complaints of their ravages 

 have also come to us from Connecticut, Penns^dvania and 

 Virginia. They are evidently widely distributeu and it is 

 certainly strange that more is not heard about them in 

 "vFassachusetts. These pests, in quite recent years, have 

 come to the front as one of the most serious fruit-deforming 

 insects. Their rise to such prominence in orchard economy 

 has necessitated a change on the part of many fruit-growers 

 in their methods of spraying, as the mixtures noW common- 

 ly applied to apple trees in foliage are wholly ineffective 

 against the creatures. They are sn^all, reddisli, sucking 

 ii'sects that destroy or deform young fruit during the course 

 cf their feeding operations. The punctures of the tissues 

 by the pests cause the apples to drop or shrivel upon the 

 tree or become dwarfed and gnarly. The eggs of the red 

 bugs are inserted in the bark of the young wood and they 

 hatch the following spring. The nymphs begin to appear 

 soon after the leaves of tbe fruit buds open, and hatching is 

 I-ractically completed by the time the blossoms open. The 

 joung nymphs feed upon the leaves until the fruit sets, 

 ffter which they attack the fruit. The first indication of 

 their presence is minute, reddish spots on the terminal 

 leaves, which are caused by their feeding. 



Of the various sprays which have been used against the 

 pest, nicotine solution has proven the most efficient and 



