INSECT FRIENDS 327 



Insects harmful to fruit trees. The codling moth ruins 

 $3,000,000 worth of fruit each year in New York state alone. 

 Most of us know this pest as the " worm " in the apple. 

 Spraying the trees when the petals begin to fall is the 

 best method of destroying this pest. In some localities 

 there is more than one brood of codling moths in sum- 

 mer, in which case the spraying has to be repeated for 

 the other broods. The canker worms, tent caterpillars, 

 plum curculio, and scale insects also attack fruit trees. 

 Borers sometimes do much injury to fruit trees, and are 

 very hard to fight as they work into the tree trunk near 

 the ground. Digging them out and filling holes with car- 

 bon bisulphide are the best ways to fight them. 



Other plant enemies. Those of us who have lived on 

 the farm know some other garden pests. The ordinary 

 cottontail or the common gray rabbits often do much 

 damage by eating garden vegetables and fruits, and es- 

 pecially by gnawing young fruit trees. They live in 

 burrows which they dig under cover of weeds and thick 

 grass. They breed rapidly, sometimes having several 

 litters of from two to four each, in a single season. Rats 

 from the barn, and more frequently field mice, do a great 

 deal of damage to our gardens and trees. The ground 

 mole, although in some ways useful because of its diet 

 of insect larvae and grubs, digs up our lawns and gardens 

 so as to become a pest about the place. 



Insect friends. Everybody knows that bees are useful 

 for they not only make honey but they also do a far 

 greater good by carrying pollen from flower to flower, thus 

 aiding in the growth of seed and fruits. We shall discuss 

 the life habits of bees more fully in our next book. The 

 ichneumon flies, near relatives of the bees, are of much 



