184 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



accounts of the life-histories of a few pests, the preventive and 

 remedial treatment of which is established on a sure foundation. 



THE WINTER MOTH. The essential fact on which the treat- 

 ment of this insect pest depends is that the females have only 

 rudimentary wings, and in consequence are unable to fly. Male 

 and female emerge from the pupae, at the earliest, in October. 

 The females crawl up the stems of the Apple trees to join the 

 males, after which they lay their eggs on twigs, branches, or 

 trunk of the tree, in any convenient crevice. The caterpillars are 

 hatched from the eggs in March, and begin to feed on the leaves 

 of the tree. They are " loopers," measuring nearly an inch in 

 length, and bright green in colour with pale lines. They leave 

 the tree in June, bury themselves in the ground and pupate, 

 emerging as moths in October or November. The remedy is to 

 prevent the female from crawling up the trunk, and this is effected 

 by grease banding, which consists in tying round the tree trunk a 

 band of grease-proof paper six inches wide and coating this with 

 cart grease. The band should be placed not far from the surface 

 of the soil, since eggs may be laid quite low down on the trunk 

 of the tree. When the females attempt to crawl over the grease 

 band they stick on it and may be removed and destroyed. Since 

 the moths begin to emerge from the pupae in October it is plain 

 that the grease bands must be put on in the last week of 

 September. 



THE GOOSEBERRY SAWFLY. - - The sawfly emerges from the 

 ground in April and May, and lays its eggs on the under surface of 

 the leaves ; the caterpillars hatched from these eggs begin to con- 

 sume the leaves in May, and may defoliate the whole bush. The 

 caterpillars when young are green with black spots ; when fully 

 grown some of the segments are orange coloured, and the cater- 

 pillar is then nearly an inch long. They then go into the ground 

 and construct cocoons. From some of these sawflies are produced 

 in about twenty days ; others remain in the soil, pupate in spring, 

 and produce the April and May sawflies. To destroy the pests 

 rake gas lime into the soil round the tree in March. To destroy 

 the caterpillars, spray the tree with an emulsion of paraffin oil 



