NURSERY AND ORCHARD INSECT PESTS 31 



unripe fruits and the small worm feeding inside the fruit or where two fruits 

 touch. 



CONTROL. Where this pest is injurious an arsenical spray, combined with 

 Bordeaux mixture for grape diseases, should be applied just after the blos- 

 soms are off and young fruits begin to set well. It is well to repeat this in 10 

 days and where injury is especially severe spray again early in July just as the 

 worms of the second generation begin to hatch and attack the fruit. One 

 pound of powdered arsenate of lead in fifty gallons of 4-5-50 Bordeaux should 

 be used. 



Supplement the sprays each year by gathering and burning or plowing 

 under all grape leaves in the late fall. 



Grape Curculio (Craponius inaequalis). This small snout beetle is 

 often very injurious to the fruit, especially in the southern part of the state. 

 There is one main generation each year. The beetles begin making egg punc- 

 tures after the fruits are about half grown and may continue until the earlier 

 varieties ripen. The adult feeds to some extent on the foliage and where 

 arsenical sprays are applied at regular intervals to keep poison on the foliage 

 the pest can be successfully controlled. The adults pass the winter in rubbish, 

 so clean culture in and near the vineyard during the fall and winter will reduce 

 the number of adults that appear in the vineyard the next summer. The sec- 

 ond spray for the grape-berry worm will help materially with the curculio. 



In Missouri our larger nurserymen grow comparatively little of their grape 

 stock so that the nurserymen's problem of handling insect pests on grape stock 

 is a comparatively small one as compared with other types of nursery stock. 



INSECT PESTS OF GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT 



Only three insects are of special importance on gooseberries or currants in 

 Missouri. The San Jose scale is often found on currants and the imported 

 currant worm and currant louse are to be met with every year. The various 

 other insects reported as attacking the stems, foliage and fruit have in the past 

 been of little importance in this state. 



San Jose Scale. In the nursery and in the garden currants may become 

 infested with the scale and it soon proves fatal to the bushes. Dormant sprays 

 as on fruit trees will control it. Infested plants in the nursery should be 

 promptly destroyed. 



Imported Currant Worm (Pteronus ribesii). Every spring as soon as 

 the leaves of gooseberry and currant are out the dark wasp-like adult appears 

 to place her eggs in the veins of the leaves. The pest passes the winter in the 

 cocoon usually as the larva and the adults appear early. The eggs hatch in 

 about ten days and the young worms begin to eat holes in the leaves usually 

 down in the center of the bush where they are less easily seen. As the worms 

 increase in size they devour all edible parts of the leaves often leaving the bare 

 stems with partly developed fruits and leaf stem. The common green and 

 black spotted worms are familiar to all who grow currants and gooseberries. 

 When full grown the larvae are three-fourths an inch long and spin a small oval 

 cocoon near the ground or under rubbish on the ground. A second and even 

 a third generation is said to develop but in this state the only damage done is 

 due to the work of the spring brood of larvae. 



CONTROL. This pest is easily controlled. Dust or spray with arsenate of 



