52 Lessons in Fruit Growing. 



the sap wood, to which it does great damage, and if several 

 borers chance to be in the same tree, they may completely 

 girdle it. The third season, the larva (a) eats into the 

 heart wood, and the following spring escapes as a perfect 

 beetle. 



Preventive measures. Examine the trunks of the trees 

 near the ground late in August or early in September, when 

 the presence of the young larva may often be detected by 

 discoloration of the bark over it. It may then be cut out 

 with a pocket knife and destroyed. Later, little heaps of 

 brown castings on the ground may betray the presence of 

 the insect, which may then often be destroyed by probing 

 the burrow with a stout wire or a flexible twig, or by cut- 

 ting through the bark at the upper end of the chamber 

 and pouring in scalding water. 



Soft soap, reduced to the consistency of thick paint with 

 a strong solution of washing soda, applied to the whole 

 trunk early in June, often prevents egg deposit. If ap- 

 plied on the morning of a warm day, the coating soon dries 

 and is not easily washed off. The application should be re- 

 newed in the early part of July. Removing the earth two 

 or three inches deep about the base of the trunk, and paint- 

 ing the bark thus exposed heavily with common paint is 

 said to keep out the larvae. This preventive should be used 

 only on trees of considerable size. Inclosing the trunk 

 with wire mosquito netting is also said to be effectual. 



58. The flat-headed apple-tree borer {Chnjsohothris 

 femorata) is also very troublesome to trees of the apple, 

 pear and quince. This insect may infest any part of the 

 trunk and sometimes even the larger branches. Its mature 

 form is a beetle, three-eighths to half an inch in length 

 (d, Fig. 13). Its eggs are deposited under the loose bark 



