REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I917 47 



examined in particular. These observations were fully borne out by 

 the condition of the fruit at picking time, it being much freer from 

 infestation than was the case in 19 16. 



Pear thrips (Taeniothrips pyri Daniel). This insidious 

 and perplexing pest continues abundant and locally injurious in the 

 Germantown fruit section and also in the pear-growing region about 

 and especially west and south of Poughkeepsie. Reports from 

 other parts of the State indicate comparatively little damage from 

 this insect. 



The practical difficulties of controlling pear thrips are indicated 

 by the following: An examination April 23, 191 7 of the orchard of 

 C. H. Deuell & Son, Bangall, showed that many of the blossom buds 

 had expanded to a length of one-half of an inch or so and had been 

 or were being invaded by many thrips. This was true not only of a 

 small orchard back of the barn where the infestation of earlier 

 years was most serious and the spraying of the preceding season 

 less satisfactory, but also of the orchard just beyond the creek 

 where the treatment the preceding spring with a thick lime sulphur 

 wash was as nearly perfect as could be expected under practical 

 conditions and where there were hopes that the numbers of the pest 

 would be considerably decreased as a result of the treatment, par- 

 ticularly as observations in May and early June of last year showed 

 that a considerable portion of the crop escaped injury and the 

 presence of a relatively small number of thrips. 



It was found last April that individual buds in the orchard 

 beyond the creek had been invaded by two, three, five or six and in 

 a few cases fifteen or twenty of the insects. Those attacked by the 

 larger numbers were in a sticky condition and showed considerable 

 dead tissue, especially in spots here and there. Such blossoms will 

 probably develop no fruit. The spraying with a thick lime sulphur 

 wash was then in progress and while a few insects were killed on the 

 outside of infested blossoms, a considerable proportion, three- 

 fourths to seven-eighths approximately, escaped injury and would 

 presumably be unaffected. There were some trees in the orchard 

 near the barn which had been sprayed on the afternoon of April 

 20th and these blossom buds showed much less injury; the few 

 thrips found in them had evidently entered within the last day or 

 two. These conditions indicated a much greater degree of pro- 

 tection from the spraying given on the 20th than that which would 

 be secured from an application on the 23d. Mr Deuell stated that 

 very few insects were seen on the earlier date and that stormy 



