170 



DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 



The Apple Aphis {Aphis mali) is the little green plant-louse 

 which often appears in large numbers on the opening buds of 

 apple in early spring. These hatch from shining black eggs 

 laid on the bark in the fall. Usually but little damage is done 

 by the lice on bearing trees, but in nurseries it often proves 

 a serious pest by badly curling the leaves and checking the 

 growth of the stock. Winged forms may leave the apple-tree 

 and start a series of summer generations on June grass. 



They may be destroyed, by a solution of whale-oil soap, or 

 even by common soap-suds'. ' It may be applied with a spray 

 pump; or young trees in the 

 nursery and their branches 

 may be bent over and im- 

 mersed in the liquid contained 

 in a large pail. It should be 

 repeated as often as they reap- 

 pear. 



The Bud Moth {Tmetocera 



Fig. 231.— The Bud Moth, twice 

 natural size. 



Fig. 232. — Work of a bud moth cater- 

 pillar in an opening leaf bud, nat- 

 ural size. 



ocellana). — This insect does much damage in many sections 

 of the country. A little brown caterpillar comes from a 

 silken home, in which it hibernated, and proceeds to eat into 

 the opening buds. It soon ruins the opening flowers and ties 

 them and the leaves together into a nest, as shown in Fig. 

 232. The brown caterpillars get full grown in June, when 

 they measure about half an inch in length, and then soon 

 undergo their transformations to the adult insect, the moth, 

 shown in Fig. 231. The moths soon lay their eggs on the 

 leaves and the young caterpillars mine in the leaves until 

 time to go into winter quarters in their silken homes on the 

 branches near the buds. 

 It requires intelligent and persistent work with a Paris 



