Curculio 141 



In the Western sections an attempt has been made, 

 and with more or less success, to do this first spraying so 

 effectually as to make subsequent spraying unnecessary. 

 It must be done at a pressure of 150 to 200 pounds, with 

 a coarse nozzle, the bordeaux type being preferred, and the 

 spray applied just at the time the last petals are falling 

 from the flowers. Better results can be had by making 

 two other sprays at intervals of a month apart. The doors 

 and windows of cellars or houses in which apples are 

 stored over winter should be screened so as to keep the 

 moths which may hatch out from the infested fruit from 

 reaching the orchard. 



Clean cultivation and the removal of scales of bark on 

 the trunks and large limbs of the trees will prevent the 

 worms from finding suitable places in which to pupate. 



Curculio 



There are three species of this insect which may do 

 serious damage to the apple. These are the plum curculio, 

 apple curculio and apple weevil. Of these the plum cur- 

 culio causes the greater amount of damage. This insect 

 is a beetle, the adult of which is about an eighth of an 

 inch long, and which hibernates over winter in the rub- 

 bish, weeds, under clods or other convenient places in the 

 orchard. On the apple this insect causes serious damage 

 by puncturing the developing fruits for the purpose of 

 feeding and to deposit eggs. These punctures differ some- 

 what from each other but either of them causes a dwarfing 

 and stunting of that portion of the fruit, so that by the 

 time the fruit reaches maturity it is very much misshapen. 



The egg puncture made by this beetle is quite easily 

 seen on fruits that have been stung. The female makes a 

 little pocket in the flesh of the apple, and into this she de- 

 posits one egg. Then, beginning at the puncture thus 

 made, she cuts a crescent shaped mark through the skin 

 partly surrounding the puncture. These crescent shaped 

 marks are very conspicuous on smooth skinned fruits such 

 ;is the plum and apple, and in regions where the curculio 



