No. 4.] FRUIT TREES AND INSECT FOES. 131 



ing off much of the honey dew, which, when it is abundant, 

 somewhat interferes with the best results of spraying in this 

 way. 



Every one who has attempted to raise peaches has had an 

 unpleasant experience with the peach borer (Sanninoidea exiti- 

 osa Say); but few are aware that the adult of this borer is a 

 pretty moth so closely resembling a wasp that De Geer wrote 

 of it nearly a century and a half ago: "When I saw the moth 

 for the first time, I dared not take it with the naked hand, so 

 sure was I that it was a wasp." 



These moths begin to appear about the tenth of July in 

 Massachusetts, but specimens are often observed as late as 

 September, indicating that different individuals appear during 

 quite a long period. They fly freely during the daytime, in 

 this regard departing from the habits of most moths, and 

 adopting those of the wasps they so closely resemble. 



The eggs of the peach borer are laid during July, August 

 and perhaps in the early part of September, on the trunks of 

 the trees. As a rule, they are laid singly and on the lower two 

 feet, though in some cases they may be placed higher, and no 

 particular place is selected for their deposition. They hatch 

 in a week or ten days, and the borer at once works its way into 

 the bark, but seems to try to reach the base of the tree for this 

 purpose. During the fall it feeds on the inner bark till cold 

 weather approaches, when it becomes quiet either where it 

 fed or beneath a thin covering it prepares on the outside of 

 the bark near the ground. In the spring feeding is resumed, 

 and most of the borers become full grown in June. They 

 then leave the tree, and at its base spin brown cocoons within 

 which the borer changes to the moth, this change requiring 

 about three weeks. At the end of this period the end of the 

 cocoon is broken open and the moth escapes, leaving its empty 

 case behind. 



The work of the borer in the tree is very noticeable after a 

 little time, quantities of gum being poured out from the wounds; 

 and the presence of this gum at the base of the trunk or else- 

 where is of itself sufficient to lead to the suspicion that borers 

 are at work there. In such cases the gum should be scraped 

 away, all splits or openings in the bark investigated with a 



