810 



INSECTS 



turists are continually importing plants from the ends of 

 he earth, and oftentimes the plants are accompanied by 

 one or more of their Insect pests. Some comparatively 

 recent introductions of this kind are the sinuate pear 

 borer, the pear midge, the gypsy moth, the brown-tail 



1155. Hemipterous insect. 

 Known to entomologists as a true bug. 



moth, the horn- fly and the elm leaf -beetle ; such standard 

 pests as the Hessian fly, the cabbage butterfly, the cur- 

 rant-worm, the codling-moth (Fig. 1137) came in many 

 years ago. Of the 73 Insects which rank as first-class 

 pests, each of them almost annually causing a loss of 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars, over one half have 

 been introduced from foreign countries, mostly from 

 Europe. It is a significant fact that usually these im- 

 ported Insects become much more serious pests here than 

 in their native home; this is doubtless largely due to the 

 absence of their native enemies, to more favorable cli- 

 matic conditions here, and to a less intense system of agri- 

 culture in this country. Most of our worst Insect pests 

 of the fruits, of the garden crops, of the granary, of the 

 household, of the greenhouse, and practically all of our 

 most dangerous scale Insects, are of foreign origin. Man 

 will continue to encroach on and disturb nature's prim- 

 itive domain, and commercial operations will never cease, 

 nor is there much hope of ever effectually quarantining 

 our shores against these little foes ; hence there seems 

 to be no practicable way to stop this increase of the In- 

 sect enemies of the horticulturist. The one who is the 

 best fitted by nature, and who best fits himself with a 

 knowledge of these pests and how to fight them, will 

 usually be the one to survive and reap the reward of profit- 

 able crops. No part of a plant, from its roots to the 

 fruit it produces, escapes the tiny jaws or the sucking 

 beaks of Insects. 



Boot-feeding Insects. Many of the small fruits and 

 vegetables are often seriously injured by Insects feed- 

 ing on the roots. The grape-vine fidia (the grub of a 

 small beetle) and the grape phylloxera plant-louse live 

 on grape roots. Strawberries often succumb to the at- 

 tacks of the grubs of several small beetles known as 

 strawberry-root worms, and to the large white grubs of 

 the May beetles. The roots of cabbages, radishes and 



1156. Tomato worm attacked by parasitic insects. 



other cruciferous plants are often devoured by hordes 

 of hungry maggots. 



These underground root-feeding Insects are difficult 

 pests to control, like any other unseen foe. Sometimes 

 they can be successfully reached by injecting a little 

 carbon bisulfide into the soil around the base of the 



INSECTS 



plant. The cabbage maggots can be largely prevented 

 by the use of tarred paper pads placed around the plants, 

 or by pouring a carbolic acid emulsion at the base of the 

 infested plants. The strawberry root-feeders are best 

 controlled by frequent cultivation and a short rotation 

 of crops. 



Borers. These are the larvae of several different 

 kinds of Insects, which burrow into and feed upon the 

 inner bark, the solid wood, or the interior pitli of the 

 larger roots, trunks, branches, and stems or stalks of 

 many horticultural plants. Nearly every kind of fruit 

 trees is attacked by its special kind of borer, as are 

 also many of the smaller vine and bush-fruits and garden 

 crops. Borers are often the most destructive of Insect 

 pests. The two apple-tree borers, the round-headed 

 (Pig. 1157) and the flat-headed species, and the pea<" 

 tree borer (Fig. 1152) doubtless cause the death of 

 many apple and peach trees in America as all other ei 

 mies combined. The recently imported sinuate 

 pear-borer seriously threatens the pear indus- 

 try in infested localities. The fruit-bark bee- 



1157. Burrows of an 

 apple-tree borer. 



The holes at a show 

 where the imago or 

 beetle emerged. 



1158. A beetle borer and its work. 



The larva bores in the young wood 

 of raspberry and blackberry 

 canes, causing the swellings seen 

 in the picture. 



ties, or " shot-hole " borers, usually attack only unthrifty 

 or sickly fruit trees, and a tree once infested by them 

 is usually doomed. Two borers, one the grub of a beetle 

 and the other the caterpillar of a moth, sometimes tun- 

 nel down the stems of currants and gooseberries. Rasp- 

 berries and blackberries (Fig. 1158) also suffer from 

 two or three kinds of borers, one working in the root, 

 one in the stem, and a maggot bores down and kills the 

 new shoots. A caterpillar closely allied to the peach- 

 tree borer lives in squash vines, often ruining the crop. 

 The potato-stalk weevil sometimes does much damage 

 in potato fields. 



Sometimes one can prevent borers from getting into 

 a fruit tree with a paper bandage closely wrapped around 

 the part liable to be attacked, or by the application pi 

 some "wash." Most of the washes recommended will 

 prove ineffectual or dangerous to use. Gas -tar has given 

 good results, but some report injury to peach trees from 

 its use ; hence one should first experiment with it on a 

 few trees. No way has been found to keep borers out 

 of the small fruits or garden crops; usually if infested 

 canes, stems or plants are cut out and burned early ir 

 the fall or whenever noticed, most of the borers will be 

 killed. When borers once get into fruit trees, the "dig- 



