REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I909 75 



Remedial measures. Experiments with an allied form on 

 asters several years ago demonstrated the feasibility of con- 

 trolling that species with a whale oil soap solution, i pound to 

 9 gallons of water. Recent work shows that similar treatment 

 Avith this or other contact insecticides is equally efficient in the 

 case of this Rhododendron pest, provided the appHcation be made 

 to the underside of the foliage in ^lay or early June. 



Bibliography 

 1908 Heidemann, Otto. Ent. Soc. Wash. Proc. 10:105-8. 



Plant lice 



The season of 1909 was noteworthy because of the great 

 abundance of plant lice. These tiny weaklings were extremely 

 numerous on a variety of fruit trees, seriously affecting the 

 foliage and in not a few instances exercising a very material 

 influence on the development of the fruit. They were also 

 present in unusual force on many other plants, such as currants, 

 cabbage, hops, shade and ornamental trees and shrubs. The 

 foliage was not only badly deformed, thickly smeared with 

 honeydew and then discolored by the sooty fungus growing in 

 this favorable medium, but the excretion was so abundant in 

 many places as to keep sidewalks wet and sticky even on the 

 hottest days. 



Small or '' aphis '' apples 



Aside from injury to foliage, there were many complaints on 

 account of the numerous small apples. This latter was probably 

 brought about by the plant lice or aphids being so numerous 

 as to reduce the vitality of the trees at the time the fruit was 

 setting, to such an extent as to prevent the one or two early fertil- 

 ized blossoms of each cluster securing a sufficient start to out- 

 strip the others and thus result in a large proportion of the 

 fruit dropping at the outset. Instead of the latter, a very desir- 

 able and normal outcome, so many blossoms set that the trees 

 were unable in large measure to produce average sized fruit. 

 There was, as a consequence, vers- many small apples and relatively 

 few good sized to large, marketable fruit. The extent of this 

 was strikingly illustrated on the experimental plots in the 

 orchard of Mr W. H. Hart. Poughkeepsie. The fruit of over 

 250 experimental trees distributed throughout the orchard and 

 therefore representative, when picked and carefully classified, 



