The Lancaster Farmer 



Prof. S. S. EATHVOr, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., JUNE, 1875. 



Vol. YTL No. 6. 



THE STRIPED APPLE TREE BORER. 



{Sitptfchl cuiuUthl.) 



No subject of the insect realm li.is lipeii 

 more injurious to the Iioallli of the apple, the 

 pear and the (luincc trees than the indiviihial 

 illustrated in its various conditions in this 

 jiaper ; and no time could l)e more ai)propriate 

 than the present to guard the trees it infests 

 against its approaches. 



By tlie time this numlier of the FAnsfEn gets 

 into the liands of our read- 

 ers tlie* "strijied apple tree 

 horer " will be coming foitli 

 from tlie trees in wliich it 

 was bred, in th(^ perfect 

 form (as in<licated bj^ ligure 

 (•,) and if we can ell'ectuallj' 

 prevent tlio females from de- 

 l>ositing their eggs at the 

 base of the trees, from the 

 middle of .June until the 

 middle of August, we shall 

 have accom|)lished all that 

 is nece.ssary to preroit the insect from perjietu- 

 ating its species, and when that end is secured 

 the battle is nearly won. 



Of course the evolution of this insect from the 

 pupil form (as exhibited by figure 6,) does not 

 occur uuiformly at the same preci;if: period in 

 all localities, nor yet in even the same locality; 

 because it is influenced in its development by 

 the teni()eratur(( of the weather— either later 

 or earlier — as this is favorable or unfavorable. 

 But, within a month after its appearance as a 

 beetle, the females become fertilized, and 

 begin to deposit their eggs at the base of the 

 trees, where all the conditions favorable to 

 their incubation exist. 



In from live to ten days after the eggs are 

 dejiosited tliey arc hatclied, and the young 

 grub, or larva, immediately penetrates the 

 ))a.se of the tree at some tender spot favoralile 

 to that oiieration, and it is then so small that 

 th(^ ajierture it makes is soon closed up by 

 natural growth, and the larva for a whole year 

 may be found liurrowinginmiediately beneath 

 tlie liark, mainly in an upward direction ; but 

 the second year it iicnetrates the wood, and the 

 third year it goes in .still deeper. (Fig. d is a 

 cross section of a ipiince tree, which exhibits 

 the different positions of the larva at these 

 periods.) At the end of the third year the 

 larva matures, and is then a whitish, fatty 

 grul), (as seen at Fig. «,) and cuts ;i h.irizontal 

 gallery out towards the 

 bark, and there changes to 

 upiiipa, (Fig. 6,) and awaits 

 the period of its final de- 

 velopment into a beetle, 

 when it cuts its way out 

 througli the hark, (Fig. c.) 

 It is then whitish beneath. 

 and striped with light 

 brown and whiter above, 

 and the females are about 

 the size repre.sented in the 

 figure, but the males arc 

 less roljust— indeed both sexes vary consid- 

 erably in size. When ii tree is very large 

 a few ofthe.se "borers " in it would not injure 

 it very materially, although they would ndt do 

 it any good. But in young trees, for whU-h 

 they .seem to have a partialitv, they are ex- 

 ceedingly hurtful, and often entirely destroy 

 *K Y^g native food-plant of tins insect is 



them. 



said to have been the Hawthorn; and, indeed, 

 we made onr first collections of them on Haw- 

 thorn hedges many years ago, and long before 

 we knew they infested domestic trees. But they 

 now seem to prefer the young apple, pear and 

 quince, iis a more toothsome wood than the 

 Hawthorn. 



'In Ibe larva or worm statu, ttiiii Insect, by way of dls- 

 tiUKuiKliiiin fromaapccifB of similar UabitB, is callcU the 

 " Buuud-beaded Apple-tree Borer." 



AVe liave designated this as the '' stripid 

 apple (lee borer," ill order to dislingiiish it 

 irom several other borers which infest'^the aji- 

 ple tree; and yet it is a common thing to hear 

 l>eopl,. talk about, and even »ir/(t'"al)out— 

 not only "Tlie Tree liorer," but also "The 

 apple tree borer "—this insect, just for all the 

 world as if there was but onk spi^eies that in- 

 fested the apple, or anv other tree. From 

 what we have written above, aided l>y the il- 

 lustrations ((, h, c and </, we think our readers 

 will be able to form a pretty correct (■oncep- 

 tioii of the insect we mean, and also to recog- 

 nize it when they see it. And now, a few 

 words about 



THE liEMKDY, 



if, indeed, it can be truly .said that the remedy 

 has been yet dis(!overed. 



If the reader has been attentive thus far, 

 h(^ will have jicrceived that the surest, cheap- 

 est and least dangerous reinedv to the patient 

 in preniUion, and being instructed in reference 

 to the season of the year when the insects are 

 abroad in their fertile state, and the time and 

 place when and where they deposit their 

 eggs, he m:iy also be able to learn how and 

 where to ajijily this remedy at least. Almost 

 any obstruction which niav prevent the female 

 beetles from approaching the b;ise of the trees 

 will answer the purpose, if 

 it is applied in time, and 

 continued long enough, say 

 from the l.",i'h of May, or 

 1st of .June, to the l.'ith of 

 September. (AVe have taken 

 the insect on the Hawthorn 

 as kite as the l:>tli of Au- 

 gust. ) Old rags, old ropes, 

 tow, wood, paper, oilcloth, 

 tin, or old jiieces of sheet- 

 iron, closely applied to the 

 ° base of the tree and con- 



tinued from 12 to 18 inches up the trunk, will 

 answer the imrpo.se. 



If this remedy is applied the present season 

 on or shortly after the middle of June, it will 

 be in time enough to circumvent the enemy. 

 About the ba.se of the .application earth should 

 be heaped, but it should not be continued ui) 

 against the trunk, for this only shifts the field 

 of operation from the real ba.se to a temporary 

 ba.se a few inches aliove ; for these insects 

 usually deposit their eggs at or a little below 

 the surface of the earth, unless the base of the 

 tree is surrouniled by rank grass or weeds 

 For incubation they require moderate heat 

 and moisture, hut not a hot sun, which would 

 "dry them up" before they hatched. But 

 the top of the applit'ation should fit close 

 around the trunk, so that the insects cannot 

 make an entrance imder or behind it. !=!ome 

 peo))le dig away the earth from the roots of 

 the trees, and leave them exposed for weeks 

 or months; but if this does any good, it is 

 through that clr>w(/ht which destrovs the 

 vitality of the egg.s, or the young griibs, be 

 fore they can penetrate the" bark. This is, 

 however, mostly done only when it is dLscoyl 

 cred that the trees are infested, and then it is 

 too late to do any good, and may do injury. 

 Api>licationsof lime, wood-a.shes. gas-lime, de- 

 coctions of carbolic soap, tobacco, and other 

 substances, are applied to the base or the roots 

 of the trees, and, if .applied just at the right 

 time, may repel the insects or kill their eggs, 

 but can have no effect iiiion the borers safely 

 lodged within the trunk of the trees. In 

 young trees with a smooth bark, and during 

 the first year of the borer's jirogress, the ex'^ 

 ternal surface will indicate the locality of their 

 internal ojierations in most ca.ses. 



If an incision is made at such jilaces where 

 the trees seem to 1k' siKlering, the l)orers may 

 l)e dislodged. We have on many occasitms cut 

 out dozens of them fully half an inch in length 



— four (ir live sometimes in a single tree, al- 

 iiHjst girdling it. 



After thi'V penetrate deeper into the wood, 

 it is difiiciilt to dislodge 

 them, the lower jiortioii of 

 their chaniH'ls Ix'ing closei 

 up with their granular, 

 woody excretions ; hut even 

 then? they may Im- reached 

 witli a long, ticxible steel 

 wire, with a barbed point, 

 and either drawn out or 

 crushed to death in their 

 cells. The "Striped Apple-Tree Borer" 

 is seldom found higher than two feet from 

 the ground. We have seen them issue 

 from a quince tree at alMiiit the maxiniuiii 

 We have named, and in some in.stances 

 they may go higher, but usually they are 

 lower. Under any circum.stances precc niton. 

 is better than any cure in which the lacera- 

 tion of the trees is involved ; therefore we 

 would admonish apple, jicar and quince grow- 

 ers to lie particularly watchful of their trees 

 during the mouths of June and .Inly. Of 

 course, they should also kill all the beetles 

 they may find, and make a note of the dates 

 of such finding. Without such a rec'ord. they 

 will be ajit to forget when or where they .saw 

 "such and such" an in.Si'ct, and what it was 

 doing for a living— whether it was in the 

 .sjiring or in tlu; fall. .So al.so in regard to 

 remedies. There may be others even better 

 than tlio.se we have suggested ; and no iiersons 

 have better opiiortunities of discovering these, 

 and testing them practically, than those who 

 are daily on the ground in pursuit of their 

 secular occupations. 



POTATO BEETLES. 



Piitato-htdJiiif Why, we noticed potato-l>ee- 

 tles in Lancaster county .as early as the suiu- 

 iner of ls:!7— and strii)ed ones at that — but for 

 aught we know to the contrary, they mav have 

 l)eeii here at a much earlier i>eriod. We had no 

 more idea then of becoming an entomological 

 student than we had of becoming a mission- 

 .ary to the Fiji Lslands, but these strijied 

 potato-beetles were so numerous that season — 

 and alsoa beautiful red long-horned lieetle with 

 black .spots {Titfdopos t'lmiUor) on the wild 

 cotton {Asrhjxiix), that we could not help 

 having our attention drawn to them, and col- 

 lecting a bottle full of them, which we kept in 

 alcohol for .several yt\irs, although onr special- 

 ly then was mineralogy, and incidentally 

 Ornithology and Ilerpetolgy. 



But although atripfd, Miey of course were 

 not the "Colorado jiotato-beetle," nor no very 

 near relation to them : moreover, they did not 

 by any means coiitine themselves- 

 to the potato i)lant, nor to plants 

 of that particular family, but 

 whatever they did infest, they 

 .stripped entirely of its foilage in 

 a very short sjiaee of time. These 

 beetles. We sub.se(iiiently learned, 

 belonged to the family C'(mthiirid<r 

 — the same family to which the 

 "Spanish-tly" or '"'Blister beetle" f«J- 1 

 belongs. Fig. 1 represents this beetle, and 

 it will readily be .seen th.at in form it differs 

 materially from the Colorado beetle, although 

 it does not differ so much in color. Its habits 

 are also dirtt'rent; moreover, its larva does not 

 feed on the tojis of the potato, nor on the tops 

 of any plant we know of, and therefore little 

 is known of the habits of the larvn;. 



Five years later than the year lft37, we 

 became more familiar with this striiied 

 potato-beetle and its three cogeners in Uie 

 county of I.ancjuster, and we have seen all of 

 them feeding on the tops of the i>otato, in 

 their mature beetle state; but although many 



