02 777 A' FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



as well as the trees obnoxious to insects, and spraying the trees with it occasionally 

 afterwards to keep a scent of petroleum on them, is a deterrent of all leaf and fruit- 

 eating pests. A sticky band placed around the stem prevents the beetles ascending 

 it to their feeding-grounds, and a line drawn along the base of the wall an inch wide 

 checks them, but they will go a long way round to reach their favourite food. 



The Iarva3 of the Eedbelted Clear-wing Moth (Sesia rnyopoeformis) by feeding in the 

 wood occasionally cause the branches of apricot trees to die suddenly, but the chief 

 attacks of this insect are directed to pear trees. The branches of apricot and stone fruits 

 generally are often preyed upon by the larvas of the Bark Beetles (Scolytidre), but they 

 seldom attack healthy trees, preferring those which have the bark dried by checks to 

 growth or exposure to sun. The most injurious are Xyleborus dispar, Vol. I., page 

 263, and the Plum- tree Bark Beetle (Scolytus pruni), to be referred to under "Plum 

 Enemies." 



Ants occasionally attack the blossom of apricots and make sad havoc of the fruit, Vol. 

 I., page 256. Earwigs also cat the flowers. For remedies, see Vol. I., page 267. The 

 slender-bodied centipede, Anthronomalis longicornis, creeps up at night to conceal itself 

 in the ripening fruit, in which it is sometimes sent to table undetected. See "Milli- 

 pedes," Vol. I., page 268. The greatest gourmands of ripening apricots are wasps and 

 bluebottle flies, Yol. I., page 279. These take advantage of the nocturnal injuries 

 inflicted on ripening fruit by earwigs to complete its destruction. 



