134 The Fruit-Growers Guide-Book 



CHAPTER VI 



Orchard Pests and Diseases 



Green Aphis of the Apple 



This is one of the common green Hce that curls the 

 leaves of the apple tree. It is an extremely common and 

 troublesome insect in some parts of the country and is 

 essentially one which feeds on the leaves by sucking the 

 juice. The female lays eggs on the twigs of the new shoots 

 in the fall, and these hatch just at the time the buds are 

 beginning to open in the spring, and are ready to insert 

 their beaks into the tissues of the unfolding leaves. These 

 insects that hatch in the spring are all females, and in 

 about two or three weeks they begin giving birth to living 

 young, and the numbers then increase very rapidly. Early 

 in the summer a generation of winged individuals appears, 

 and fly from tree to tree and from orchard to orchard with 

 the prevailing winds. In the latter part of summer a gen- 

 eration of winged males and wingless, egg-laying females 

 appears and a little later the females begin laying the 

 greenish black eggs which are to carry through the winter. 



Remedy: It is quite difficult to kill the eggs of this in- 

 sect. Strong applications of lime-sulphur have been help- 

 ful, but the best methods are with tobacco sprays, such 

 as "black leaf" or "black leaf 40" at about the time the eggs 

 have hatched and the insects are working themselves into 

 the opening buds. Kerosene emulsion is also effective. 



Woolly Aphis. 



In many places this insect is more troublesome than 

 the green aphis. It is readily recognized by its reddish 



