INSECTS 



INSECTS 



811 



^ing-out " process is usually the only resort, although 

 K>me report that they readily kill the depredator by 

 simply injecting a little carbon bisulfide into the en- 

 rance of his burrow and quickly closing it with putty. 

 Btid and Leaf-feeding Insects. The buds and leaves 

 >f horticultural crops often swarm with legions of biting 

 uid sucking Insects. A mere enumeration of the dif- 

 :erent kinds of these pests would weary the reader. 

 Some Insects, like the rose chafer, work on several dif- 

 ferent kinds of plants, while many others attack only one 

 jr two kinds. In apple orchards, the opening buds are 

 '.seized upon by the hungry bud-moth and case-bearing 

 Caterpillars, by the newly-hatched canker-worms, and 

 'by tent-caterpillars, whose tents or " signboards " are fa- 

 miliar objects in many orchards. These pests continue 

 their destructive work on the leaves. The pear slug 

 Dften needs to be checked in its work of skeletonizing 

 the leaves of the pear and cherry. The pear psylla, one 

 of the jumping plant-lice, is a very serious menace to 

 pear-growing in many localities; the fruit is either 

 dwarfed or drops from badly infested trees, and some- 

 times so many little pumps sucking out its life finally 

 cause the death of the tree. The little blue grape-vine 

 flea-beetle often literally nips the prospective crop of 

 ! fruit in the bud, or the rose-chafer may swarm over the 

 vines and eat the foliage or blossoms. Currant and goose- 

 berry growers realize that eternal vigilance against the 

 familiar green currant worms is the price of a crop of fruit. 



The asparagus beetles 

 would soon appropriate 

 every asparagus shoot 

 that appears in many 

 localities. It is a con- 

 tinual struggle against 

 Insect pests to get a 

 paying crop of almost 

 any vegetable. The 

 several kinds of cab- 

 bage caterpillars would 

 soon riddle the leaves. 

 The hungry striped cu- 

 cumber beetles Can 

 hardly wait for the 



melon, squash, or cucumber vines to come up. Two 

 sucking Insects, the harlequin cabbage bug and the 

 squash stink-bug, are equally as destructive as their 

 biting relatives. 



The bud- and leaf -feeding Insects are usually readily 

 controlled by spraying some poison on their food, or 

 by hitting them with some oil or soap spraj 7 '. As the 

 , female moths of canker-worms are wingless, a wire 

 1 trap or sticky bandage placed around the trunk of the 

 tree in the late fall and early spring, to capture the 

 moths as they crawl up the tree to lay their eggs, will 

 greatly help to check these serious pests. The collection 

 , and burning of the conspicuous egg-rings of the tent- 

 caterpillars at any time between August and the fol- 

 lowing April, will greatly reduce the vast numbers of 

 tents or signboards of shiftlessness in apple orchards. 

 Hand-picking or collecting is the most successful method 

 1 of controlling the rose-chafer, harlequin cabbage bug, 

 ! and the squash stink-bug in many cases. Prompt action, 

 guided by a knowledge of the Insect's habits and life- 

 history, and an intelligent use of materials and appara- 

 tus, are essentials in any successful effort to control 

 ' these bud- and leaf-feeding pests of the horticulturist. 

 Fruit -eating Insects. "Wormy" apples, pears, 

 I quinces, plums, peaches, cherries, apricots, grapes, cur- 

 ' rants and nuts are often the rule rather than the excep- 

 tion. The codling-moth or apple-worm often ruins from 

 one-third to one-half of the crop each year in many 

 localities; it also infests pears seriously. The apple 

 ; maggot tunnels its way through and through the flesh 

 : of a large percentage of the apples in the northern sec- 

 ions of the country. Most of the wormy plums, peaches, 

 cherries and apricots are the work of the grub of that 

 worst Insect enemy of the stone fruits the plum cur- 

 culio; the plum gouger, a similar Insect, whose grub 

 works in the pit of plums, is equally destructive to this 

 fruit in some states. "Knotty" quinces are largely the 

 work of the adults of the quince curculio, while its grub 

 often ruins the fruit with its disgusting worm-hole. 

 There is also a grape curculio. that, with the aid of the 



caterpillar of a little moth, works havoc in grapes. 

 Currants and gooseberries are often wormy from the 

 work of two or three different kinds of maggots and 

 caterpillars. A new pest has now included the delicious 

 cherry in its menu; it is a fruit-fly, closely allied to the 

 apple maggot; infested cherries may show no external 

 signs of the presence of the maggot reveling in the 



1159. Grasshopper. 



1160. A crane fly. Mounted, 



juices within. Various small beetles, known as weevils, 

 are responsible for most wormy nuts. 



Most of the fruit-eating Insects are out of the reach 

 of the ordinary insecticides. The codling-moth is a noted 

 exception, however, for the peculiar habit that the little 

 caterpillar has of usually entering the blossom end of 

 the fruit and feeding therein for a few days, gives the 

 man with a poison spray a very vulnerable point of 

 attack. It is only necessary to spray a bit of poison into 

 the open calyx cup within a few days after the petals 

 fall, and let nature soon close the calices and keep the 

 poison therein until the newly-hatched caterpillar in- 

 cludes it in its first menu. Often 75 per cent of the 

 apples that would otherwise be ruined by the worms are 

 saved by an application of Paris green at this critical 

 time. The fact that the apple maggot never leaves the 

 fruit until after it is picked or has fallen from the tree, 

 gives one a chance materially to reduce its numbers by 

 frequently gathering the windfalls and feeding them to 

 stock or burying them deeply. As the plum curculio, in 

 the adult stage, feeds on the leaves and fruits, a poison 

 spray, applied soon after blossoming 

 time, is apparently sometimes effective 

 against it, particularly on cherries. 

 Many extensive growers of the stone- 

 fruits, however, are satisfied that this 

 pest can be best circumvented by jar- 

 ring the curculios onto sheets and kill- 

 ing them ; the quince curculio . is also 

 best fought by the jarring method. 

 Hand-picking of the infested fruits 

 must be practiced when grapes, cur- 

 rants or gooseberries are attacked by 

 fruit-eating Insects. 



Plant-Lice. Scarcely a plant es- 

 capes the little suction pump or beak 

 1161. A snapping * some kind of a plant-louse or aphis, 

 beetle. Mounted. About 250 different kinds of plant-lice 

 have been identified in the United 

 States, and nearly every kind of fruit, flower, farm or 

 garden crop has its special plant-louse enemy, which is 

 often a serious factor in the production of a crop. These 

 little creatures are so small, so variable, so hard to per- 

 ceive, present so many different forms in the same spe- 

 cies, and have such' varied and interesting life-stories 

 to tell, that what we now know about them is but a 

 mere beginning as compared to what is yet to be 

 learned. It would take a large volume to include the in- 

 teresting stories which might be told of the lives and of 

 the relations with ants of some of the commonest of 

 these plant-lice. No other group of Insects presents so 

 many curious, varied, interesting, and wonderful prob- 

 lems of life as do the aphids 



