THE CODLING MOTH 345 



sity of combating pests by scientific methods is part 

 payment for the injuries it has inflicted in farm and 

 garden. 



The San Jos6 scale comes from China. The name 

 is taken from the town of San Jose", California, where the 

 insect first appeared in the United States. It is a small 

 sucking insect, a member of the louse family ; and it is 

 called a scale because it develops a flat roundish shell, or 

 "scale," over its body. The scale is from a twenty-fifth 

 to a twelfth of an inch in diameter. The insect inserts 

 its beak in bark, leaf, or fruit ; and injects a poison which 

 injures the sap for the tree but makes it digestible for 

 itself. This modified sap is then sucked into its body. 

 Thousands of these scales at work at one time on a limb 

 will soon destroy it, or at least weaken its vitality. 



The lime and sulphur spray is a most effective remedy. 

 The spray is applied in spring or fall, while the plant is 

 dormant, or in a leafless state. Every part of the affected 

 tree or shrub, especially all new growths, must be 

 thoroughly covered by the spray. 



Several kinds of parasites, it has been observed, prey 

 upon the San Jose scale. So far, these parasites have 

 done more in the way of checking its ravages than all the 

 spraying. But checking pests by parasites, as we shall 

 learn a little later, is not always a dependable method. 



253. The Codling Moth. The word "codling" means 

 an immature apple. However, the codling worm lives 

 not only in the immature but in the mature or ripe apple. 

 Boys have often noticed a pinkish, dark-headed worm in 

 apples. How often have we gone to the orchard and 

 started to eat an apple, only to come upon an ugly worm ! 

 One can usually see the hole, surrounded with apple chip- 

 pings, where the fellow entered. The worm feeds in and 

 around the seed only, and does not destroy the tree itself 



