REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST IQl6 57 



blossom buds and the unusual drop of bud scales followed later by 

 small, crinkled, spoon-shaped leaves. In the earlier stages of the 

 attack a slender, dark-brown, apparently wingless insect, only one- 

 twentieth of an inch long, may be seen upon the opening fruit buds 

 and especially in crevices between the stems of the partly expanded 

 fruit clusters. Sometimes it is easy, by drawing the loosely closed 

 hand over a limb, to dislodge two or three of the thrips, a con- 

 venient method of detecting infestation prior to there being any 

 material injury. 



Habits of the insect. The thrips winter in the soil, appearing 

 upon the trees as the young leaves push from the bud or even some- 

 what before, and feed by preference upon the more tender and essen- 

 tial parts of the fruit buds. They may be found crawling between 

 the loosened bud scales, the partly opened leaves, and working their 

 way to the base of clusters of fruit buds. Thickly infested buds 

 become sticky, showing clear drops of sap, and in very serious infes- 

 tations the branches and trunk may be wet with the exudation. 

 The microscopic eggs are deposited in minute slits in the leaf and 

 blossom stems. The whitish, red-eyed young soon appear and feed, 

 like the darker parents, on the tender leaves for about two weeks, 

 drop to the ground and remain in the soil unchanged till fall. 



Food plants. This minute pest attacks a variety of our deciduous 

 fruits, including the apple, apricot, cherry, fig, grape, peach, pear, 

 plum, prune, quince and also English walnut; the principal damage, 

 however, is to pear trees. 



An unusual damage, at least for the Hudson valley, was observed 

 on the farm of Mr William Albright, at New Baltimore, in the form 

 of severe injury to apple buds in a gully below a rather extensive 

 pear orchard. The location is such that it would seem as though 

 the insects drifted with gentle breezes from the higher pear orchard 

 down through the gully onto the apple trees. It was easy to find 

 on the sunny side of the trees four or five thrips in a bud and in a 

 few cases the numbers ran to ten or fifteen. The year preceding 

 Mr Albright stated that ten to fifteen or even^thirty thrips were 

 found in individual buds. 



Remedial measures. The small size, sudden appearance and insid- 

 ious method of work makes this insect a very difficult one to control, 

 and while spraying with contact insecticides, if ^timely, will quickly 

 destroy the thrips, practically it is by no means easy to make the 

 treatment at just the right time to secure satisfactory results. The 

 application generally used is a tobacco extract, 40 per cent nicotine, 

 at the rate of three-fourths of a pint to 100 gallons of water to which 



