120 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



San Jose scale suffices for this pest also. Summer sprays do not reach the 

 mites as they are then hidden within the leaves. The pest was once a 

 serious menace to the pear, but with the advent of winter spraying has 

 become of small importance. 



Of the numerous other insects which occasionally become serious pests 

 of the pear, at least twenty have been troublesome at one time or another 

 in New York. Space does not permit a description of these minor pests — 

 they are named as a matter of record. It is not necessary to give remedies 

 for them, as all are controlled by the treatment of major pests which in 

 most orchards need annual applications of one spray or another. 



Several scale insects, other than San Jose scale, are more or less 

 pestiferous in the pear-orchards of this State; commonest of these is the 

 oyster-shell, which not infrequently does serious damage to young and 

 unhealthy trees. The scurfy scale found chiefly on the apple sometimes 

 becomes a pest on the pear. A hemispherical scale, about one-twelfth 

 of an inch in length, known as the terrapin scale, now and then infests the 

 pear, but is seldom if ever harmful. As a rule, the treatment for San Jose 

 scale keeps all other scales in check, but all are more difficult to kill than 

 the San Jose and in cases of troublesome infestations may require drastic 

 treatment with a contact insecticide. 



A great number of chewing insects, as distinguished from sucking 

 insects, defoliate the pear when given an opportunity, but are kept in 

 check by the treatment for codling moth. The much-dreaded browntail 

 moth and gypsy moth now have a foothold in the State, but as yet can 

 hardly be called pests although their advent threatens the pear industry 

 as it does all other orchard industries. The bud-moth, seldom seen in 

 well-cared-for orchards, is sometimes a vexatious visitor in pear-orchards. 

 Three species of caterpillars, all most striking in appearance, the larval 

 stages of tussock moths, infest pear-trees. These are the white-marked 

 tussock moth, the rusty tussock moth, and the definite-marked tussock 

 moth. 



The pear-tree has its share of borers. A small, dark brown beetle, 

 about one-third of an inch in length, the apple twig-borer, sometimes 

 does considerable damage to young shoots of the pear. The flat-headed 

 apple-tree borer works in the sap wood of the pear as in the apple. The 

 shot -hole borer, a tiny insect, eats a small round hole in the trunk of the 

 pear, as it does also in several fruits, but does little damage except in 

 devitalized trees. The shot-borer, a tiny black beetle, one-tenth of an 



