INSECTS INJURIOUS TO STONE FRUITS 



649 



to three-fourths of the borers are kept out of the trees in this 

 way. In the early fall the earth should be leveled down to 

 facilitate finding the little larvae. Oviposition on the lower 

 trunk may also be prevented by wrapping the trunk with building 

 paper, or any heavy paper, which should extend well into the soil 

 below and be tied tightly just below the crotch at the top. Such 

 wrapping may be used to 

 advantage with the mound- 

 ing up of the earth and 

 thus largely prevent ovi- 

 position. The wrappers 

 should be applied before the 

 moths appear and be re- 

 moved in the early fall. 

 Various washes composed 

 of soaps, lime, glue, cement, 

 carbolic acid, and various 

 other ingredients have been 

 commonly recommended 

 and widely used for pre- 

 venting the laying of the 

 eggs and the entrance of 

 the young larva?, but care- 

 ful tests have failed to 

 show their value. Doubt- 

 less this is due to the 

 roughness of the bark of 

 the peach, over which it is 

 difficult to make a com- 

 plete coating, and the little 

 larvae will enter through the 



smallest crevice. Some wash which would penetrate the burrows 

 of the young larvae and destroy them, as does the avenarius car- 

 bolineum with the bark beetles (p. 546), would seem to be the 

 most promising line of treatment, and some of the washes which 

 have been extensively used by practical growers should be critically 



FIG. 501. Work of a single peach 

 borer, natural size: w, b, burrow of 

 borer; g, gummy mass; />, pupa project- 

 ing from cocoon. (After Slingerland.) 



