CURRANT WORMS 425 



254. Soot, also rue and chamomile planted among the bushes, 

 Tilton's Jour., 4:233. Decoction of elder leaves and tobacco 

 water, Ibid, 7:187. Young chickens, Hovey's Mag., 1854:527. 



In 1869, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society offered a prize 

 of twenty -five dollars for "a safe, certain and economical 

 method, better than any now known, of destroying the currant 

 worm, or preventing its ravages." 



It is easily controlled by the application of white hellebore, 

 half an ounce or a teaspoonful to a gallon of water, as soon as the 

 worms appear. The eggs of the first brood are laid chiefly on the 

 tufts of leaves at the base of the plant, and Paris green or LondoL. 

 purple may be used for the first application, while the larvae are 

 yet on these leaves. The work should be thorough, for if the 

 bushes are defoliated, even after the fruit is off, the crop of the 

 succeeding year suffers in consequence. At the Ohio Experiment 

 Station, the cost of spraying twice and completely protecting the 

 plants was found to be but $5 per acre. 



THE NATIVE CURRANT WORM 



Pristiphora grossularice, Walsh. Order Hymenoptera. Family 

 Tenthredinidse. 



Walsh, Pract. Ent., 1 : 123. Riley, Mo. Rep., 9 : 23. Saunders, Ins. Inj. 

 Frts., 343. Walsh and Riley, Amer. Ent., 2 : 22. Pristiphora rufipes, 

 St. Fargeau. Fitch, N. Y. Rep., 12 : 908. Saunders, Ins. Inj. Frts., 344. 



This is a saw-fly closely related to the imported currant worm, 

 though smaller in size, and belonging to a different genus. The 

 larva is solid green in color, never having black spots like the 

 other. The life history is much the same, except that the second 

 brood emerges from the pupal stage in autumn, and deposits its 

 eggs upon the branches, where they remain during the winter, 

 hatching the following spring. The young larvse do not feed in 

 groups. This insect seldom causes serious injury. It is men- 

 tioned chiefly on account of its relationship to its European 

 cousin, by whom it is so far outstripped in the work of life set 

 apart for a currant worm to do. 



Remedy. The same remedy employed against the other insect 

 is effective against this one. 



