REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I915 I5 



INJURIOUS INSECTS 



CODLING MOTH 



Carpocapsa pomonella Linn. 



Serious and repeated injury in the western part of the State by 

 what was supposed to be the work of the second brood of the codling 

 moth, resulted in the planning of a series of experiments in connec- 

 tion with field observations, to ascertain if there was not some way 

 of lessening the damage. The work was undertaken in coopera- 

 tion with the bureaus of farmers' institutes and of horticulture of 

 the State Department of Agriculture, and also with the Monroe 

 County Farm Bureau. The orchards selected for the experiments 

 were located through the courtesy of Messrs A. B. Buchholz of 

 Albion, and L. F. Strickland of Lockport, both agents of the State 

 Department of Agriculture, and of Mr L. A. Toan of Rochester, 

 manager of the Monroe County Farm Bureau. It was our aim 

 to secure orchards in a good horticultural condition, which had been 

 sprayed regrdarly and thoroughly for a series of years and which were 

 also in sections where the codling moth was known to be injurious. 

 Furthermore, in order to secure satisfactory data it was necessary 

 to take orchards which promised a fairly good and uniform crop; 

 otherwise comparisons are apt to be confusing. 



Satisfactory orchards were located in Albion, Monroe and Niagara 

 counties, and through the courtesy and cooperation of Messrs J. A. 

 Talbot of Spencerport, H. E. Wellman of Kendall, and W. H. 

 Cowper & Son of Newfane, every facility was placed at our dis- 

 posal, these gentlemen agreeing to spray according to the plan 

 described in detail below. In each case the men and the equip- 

 ment on the place were used, the Entomologist supervising the opera- 

 tions. There were twenty experimental trees in each orchard, some 

 bearing as high as eleven barrels, so that the manual labor involved 

 in the actual sorting and classification of the yield was by no means 

 sro.all and acknowledgments are due Messrs Toan, Buchholz and 

 Strickland, especially the last named, since he was personally 

 responsible for the classification of the wormy fruit in all the orchards, 

 for the material assistance they rendered in this laborious part of 

 the undertaking. 



Life history and habits. Before giving the details of the experi- 

 mental work, it may be well to outline the life history of the pest, 

 since a knowledge of its habits is essential to satisfactory control 

 work. The codling moth or apple worm winters in a tough, silken 



