THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[January, 



mer — illustrating that the entire order, or 

 family, are not condemnable, but have re- 

 deeming qualities. This fact may i)revent 

 some people from destroying certain insects, 

 because they do not know to which class they 

 belong. JMo such exception can be made to 

 the order Lepidoptera, which includes the 

 codling moth. They arc all perfectly inno- 

 cent, as a moth, or as a butterfly ; but they 

 are all destructive as a larva, or caterpillar ; 

 there is no exception. True, many of them 

 live upon wild plants, forest foliage, and 

 other vegetable substances, that do not ma- 

 terially affect the interests of the human 

 family : but there is no knowing what they 

 may do when their natural food, and their na- 

 tural haunts are displaced by tlie march of 

 improvement, and a higher state of agricul- 

 tural manipulation. When a minute insect 

 is destructive, it is a worse foe to contend 

 against than larger species of similar habits, 

 because of their numbers, and their increased 

 proliflcation. The western "chinch-bug" is 

 a more formidable enemy to the wheat and 

 corn crops than any other individual belong- 

 ing to its natural order : and because of its 

 small size and immense numbers, it is more 

 difficult to fight against successfully. We 

 have an immense number of minute species of 

 Lepidoptera, one group of which are 

 termed micro-lepidopiera, because they cannot 

 be examined by the naked eye alone, but 

 through the magnifying power of a micro- 

 scope ; but they are feeders on vegetation — 

 many of them " leafrainers" — and hence must 

 be incorporated with the destructive species. 

 The codlings seem to be a link between these 

 and the larger species, less numerous, less 

 destructive. 



As to remedies against the destructions of 

 the codling moth, I know nothing that is new. 

 All the remedies are nearly as old as the moth 

 itself. No known remedy now can be effect- 

 ive without a simultaneous effort. Prof. 

 Kedzie, of Michigan, a year or two ago, read 

 a paper before one of our national scientific 

 associations, in which he related his experi- 

 ments on the moth, eggs and larva, by an ap- 

 plication of liquid Paris Green, administered 

 through a force pump, or syringe. lie also 

 detailed the beneficial results, but I have not 

 heard that his remedy has had any following 

 at all. 



There are, however, other remedies more 

 certain in their results, but they are old, and 

 unsatisfactory if all do not join in them ; for, 

 even if one man succeeded in destroying every 

 moth, and worm and egg on his premises, it 

 would amount to little, if his heighbors did 

 not do the same. Young fruit infested by 

 the worm of this moth, is almost certain to 

 prematurely fall ; and if it does not fall, it 

 should be picked before the worm leaves it ; 

 and all, both that which is picked off, and 

 that which falls of its own accord, should be 

 thrown into scalding water, or fed to pigs and 

 cattle or anything else that will eat them. It 

 has been recommended to let pigs, sheep, and 

 poultry, run at large in orchards infested by 

 the codling, but this practice should also be 

 general in order to be effective. 



Those who have experimented with "traps" 

 to catch the insect after pupation, recommend 

 a hay band around the trunk and larger limbs 

 of the tree, or old rags hung in the forks of 



the branches ; but later experience suggests 

 that these rags should be wrapped entirely 

 around the trunk or branch in order to be suc- 

 cessful. These bands are to be taken off and 

 thoroughly examined every ten or twelve 

 days, and the cocoons collected and de- 

 stroyed. ' 



In order to facilitate this manipulation, and 

 to save labor, one experimenter 'confidently 

 recommends the wrappings to be strong linen 

 or cotton fabric ; and every two weeks these 

 bands should be removed and run through a 

 good clothes wringer, wliich, of course would 

 "smash," effectually, everything within its 

 folds. Pieces ot light board laid on the 

 ground under the trees, will attract those 

 worms that leave the fruit after it falls to the 

 ground, as a proper place for pupation. 

 Shingles and laths nailed together with small 

 spaces between, and hung on trees, will form 

 pupating shelters for those that leave the fruit 

 whilst it is yet hanging on the trees — to be ex- 

 amined every ten days or two weeks ; but 

 even this device may be deprived of its effects 

 by an indifferent neighbor. 



All barrels and boxes used for shipping 

 apples from one locality to another, and in 

 which the apples sometimes remain for 

 months, should be "blazed " as soon as they 

 become empty, especially if they have been 

 in the possession of the last holder any length 

 of time. It is true, many of them may harbor 

 no pupas or moths, but then it is equally true 

 that many of them niay— indeed there are 

 several records of moths having issued from 

 old apple barrels in the spring ; and, 1 myself, 

 have made at least one such observation. 

 Codling moths have quite frequently been 

 noticed, prematurely, on the windows of 

 warm rooms in the spring, and there is every 

 reason to believe that these were bred from 

 apples kept in the house during winter. They 

 could not have come from without the house 

 at that season of the year, and therefore 

 must have come from within. It would per- 

 haps be too late to blaze the barrels or boxes 

 if we waited until spring — it certainly would 

 be too late after the moths had all escaped 

 from their cocoons. 



Apple bins or apple silos, wherein apples 

 have been stored for winter keeping should 

 undergo a thorough examination when they 

 are emptied — at least before the first of 

 May — or before the evolutions of the moth, 

 but in " looking them up " you must not ex- 

 pect to find anything very large or conspicu- 

 ous. Sometimes the cocoon is a little fiat 

 oblong, spun in the angle formed by the side 

 and bottom of the box in which they were 

 kept, or in the upright angles at the cor- 

 ners. 



The moth does not spin out on an open 

 plane, but in an angle, in a crevice, or in a 

 cavity. Its silk is white, or dirty white, and 

 where the surroundings are of a darker color 

 it is not difticult to find them, but on a white 

 surface they may be very easily overlooked. 

 But the greater number of them without a 

 doubt pupate in crevices, or under scales of 

 bark on tlie trees. Scraping off all the loose 

 scales of bark would doubtless carry with it 

 many of the cocoons and pupa? ; for those 

 that have not been reached, but remain in 

 the fissures, perhaps an alkalinoLis liquid, or 

 a strong solution of soap would be necessary 



to dislodge and destroy them. I have seen it 

 somewhere stated that pieces of strong soap, 

 tied in the forks of tlie branches of the trees, 

 and left there to slowly dissolve under descend- 

 ing rains, and trickle down over the surface' 

 has been successful as a remedy against those 

 insects that lodge in the bark crevices of 

 trees. It is a very simple and inexpensive 

 remedy and cannot do anyharm, but may do 

 some good, whether it destroys codling moths 

 or not. The fact is, something must ho done; 

 and nothing can be done without labor and 

 expense. 



It seems hardly necessary to state that cod- 

 liug moths are subject to the attacks of para- 

 sites. This fiict has been barely observed, 

 but they certainly have not been much de- 

 pleted by parasites. A small .species of ' ' Ich- 

 neumon-fiy" {Plmpla awadipfs) deposits its 

 eggs in the worm, either while it is yet in the 

 apple, or after it comes out of the apple, or 

 perhaps, while it is in the cocoon. There 

 would be no diftioulty in the way of the 

 Pimpla depositing its eggs in the body of a 

 codling worm, if that were all, for there are 

 species of them with ovipositors long enough 

 to reach the body of a wood worm, two or 

 three inches beneath the outer surface of the 

 wood. But then this conld have very little 

 effect upon the late brood of the moth, and 

 especially those t<iat are packed with the 

 apples and sent to remote markets. A cole- 

 opterterous insect, belonging to the Lampyris 

 or "Fire-fly" family, {Chanliognathus penn- 

 sylvanicus) is said also to have attacked it in 

 its larva state. The larvae of these Lampy- 

 rans are generally carnivorous, and some of 

 the mature beetles are exceedingly so. I 

 have known the garden snail (Helix) to beat- 

 tacked by large numbers of TdepJwrt(s col- 

 laris, and allied species, and they never de- 

 sisted until they had tlie shell completely 

 cleaned out. They no doubt would destroy 

 a codling worm if they had an opportunity, 

 but all things considered, I do not think the 

 opportunity would be frequent enough to be 

 felt by the fruit-grower, in a diminished 

 number of codlings. In conclusion, from all 

 the observations that have been made, and 

 from all that has been written and pub- 

 lished on this subject, little more has been 

 developed than mere experimentation. No 

 quick, effective, and unfailing remedy has yet 

 been discovered, and the patient fruit grower 

 is still remanded to manual effort, assisted by 

 common strategy. 



It is not a bold aud open enemy, but in all 

 its operations, and m all its stages of develop- 

 ment, it works under cover. It is more con- 

 spicuous for where it has been, and what it 

 has done, than for where it is, and what it is 

 doing. We only recognize its presence after 

 the fruit has fallen from trees infested, or by 

 its excretal voidings, either around its aper- 

 ture of entrance, or where it makes its exit. 

 The recommendations and suggestions that 

 from time to time have been made in regard 

 to it, are good only so far as they go, and 

 none of them even approaches a finality. It 

 has passed out of the category of contingen- 

 cies aud has become a permanent fixture, and 

 must be provided for as such. A time may 

 come when it will have run its course, but 

 judging from its antecedents, it would not be 

 wise to prematurely anticipate that time. 



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