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BETTER FRUIT 



Page 43 



HOW TO COMBAT WITH THE PEACH TREE BORER 



ONE of America's most noted peach 

 growers, J. H. Hale, of Connecti- 

 cut, has said: "The peach borer 

 has killed more trees than all other 

 causes combined." Comparatively few 

 peach trees planted east of the Missis- 

 sippi River in the last twenty-five years 

 have lived to produce a crop without 

 suffering more or less from this dreaded 

 insect. The peach tree borer has ranked 

 as one of the standard and serious pests 

 of the United States for nearly a century. 

 It has been the subject of much discus- 

 sion in the agricultural literature during 

 that time, and it is probable that more 

 schemes for its control have been 

 devised than for any other of our many 

 insect pests. 



Yet in all this time there were few 

 thorough and scientific experiments to 

 determine the efficiency of any of these 

 methods. This led Professor Com- 

 stock, of New York, to plan, several 

 years ago, a series of experiments to test 

 the so-called remedies; and he had an 

 orchard of nearly 400 trees planted for 

 this sole purpose. 



The peach tree borer is a native of 

 America, being found only in the United 

 States and Canada. The peach tree is 

 a foreign plant, but had doubtless been 

 in cultivation for a century or more 

 before any mention was made of its 

 being attacked by the borer in this coun- 

 try. Probably the first reference to this 

 insect is that of Peter Kalm, June 15, 

 1749, in his "Travels Into North Amer- 

 ica," when he mentioned its appearance 

 near Albany, New York; and a hundred 

 and fifty years ago it had become a seri- 

 ous menace to the peach industry. In 

 the years 1800-12 it became a serious 

 pest in New Jersey. Pennsylvania and 

 Virginia; in 1823 it was common in Mas- 

 sachusetts and North Carolina; by 1850 

 it had become quite common in all peach 

 orchards from the Atlantic Coast to the 

 Mississippi River, and by 1871 had 

 attained a similar reputation in Canada. 

 At present it has to be combated by 

 nearly every successful peach grower in 

 the states east of the Rocky Mountains. 

 Apparently it has not yet established 

 itself on the Pacific Coast, and occurs 

 west of the Rocky Mountains only in 

 Colorado, and possibly in New Mexico. 



In Oregon Bulletin No. 45, 1897, pages 

 100-107, there is a good discussion of the 

 Oregon peach and prune borer, supposed 

 to be Sanninoidea exitiosa, but speci- 

 mens submitted to Washington authori- 

 ties (according to Professor Slingerland) 

 show that the Oregon species is opales- 

 cens, thus there is yet no definite evi- 

 dence that exitiosa occurs in Oregon. 

 Professor Cordley says in the bulletin: 

 "This insect, which promises to be one 

 of the very worst insect enemies of the 

 prune, is the well known Eastern peach 

 tree borer. It was described by Thomas 

 Say neary seventy-five years ago under 

 the name Aegeria exitiosa. Several years 

 ago the species was transferred to the 

 genus Sannina, since when it has been 

 known as Sannina exitiosa. Recently, 

 however, Mr. Beutenmuller, who is mak- 



BY J. P. GREEN, OREGON AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



ing a critical study of North American 

 Sesiidae, has concluded that the species 

 should form the type of a new genus, 

 Sanninoidea, so that henceforth this 

 insect will probably be known scientifi- 

 cally as Sanninoidea exitiosa (Say). The 

 peach tree borer was probably intro- 

 duced into Oregon about 1880, first 

 appearing near Salem. It is presumed 

 that it came in trees from Eastern 

 nurseries. At the time of this bulletin 

 it was considered one of the worst pests 

 with which Oregon orchardists had to 

 contend; and, in addition to peach trees, 

 cherry and plum trees sometimes suffer 

 from their attacks. 



In 182.3 specimens of the moth of the 

 peach tree borer were submitted to 

 Thomas Say, of Philadelphia, and he 

 named and described them as exitiosa, 

 the specific name by which the insect is 

 now known the world over. 



The insect was popularly known as 

 the "peach worm" or the "peach tree 

 insect" in earlier writings. Some time 

 prior to 1850 it had received the name 

 of "peach tree borer," and usually under 

 this popular name it has since been dis- 

 cussed. Almost every peach grower 

 east of the Rocky Mountains under- 



PEACH TRKES PROTECTED BY WIRE SCREEN 

 AND BANDAGED WITH PAPER 

 (After Slingerland. Bulletin No. 176, Cornell 

 Experiment Station) 



Stands what insect is referred to as the 

 "peach tree borer." However, the peach 

 tree borer of the Pacific Coast states is 

 a different kind of insect, bearing the 

 scientific name Sanninoidea opalescens. 

 Probably when exitiosa reaches these 

 states it will be known as the Eastern 

 peach tree borer in order to make a dis- 

 tinction between the two species. 



Most peach growers have seen this 

 insect in its destructive or "borer" stage, 

 and doubtless but few ever saw it in 

 any other form. The peach tree borer, 

 like all other species of the order Lepi- 

 doptera, undergoes complete metamor- 

 phosis, beginning life as an egg, from 



which hatches the larva or "borer," 

 which, when full grown, enters the pupal 

 stage, and from which the adult or moth 

 form of the insect emerges. 



When full grown the larva is very 

 light yellow in color, a worm-like crea- 

 ture about an inch long, and in addition 

 to its six well developed thoracic legs 

 it has five pairs of pro-legs, one each on 

 the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and last 

 abdominal segments. The head is of a 

 shiny, dark reddish brown color, with 

 its strong mandibles or jaws nearly black. 

 The spiracles or breathing holes along 

 each side of the body are nearly circular 

 and dark brown in color, with a black 

 border. 



The adult form or parent of the peach 

 tree borer is a moth, which belongs in 

 the family known as the clear-winged 

 moths, many of which resemble bees or 

 wasps in appearance more than they do 

 ordinary moths. The male and female 

 moths differ so strikingly in appearance 

 that one often wonders if they can be 

 the same species. The general color of 

 the male moth is a deep steel-blue with 

 a glossy luster like satin, the four wings 

 are transparent and glass-like with a 

 light tinge of smoky yellow. The female 

 moths are a little larger than the male 

 moths, their wings are wholly of a deep 

 steel-blue color with a satiny luster, 

 except a broad orange-colored band 

 extending nearly around the abdomen on 

 the fourth, or on both the fourth and 

 fifth segments. The front wings are 

 opaque, being entirely covered with the 

 deep blue scales, while the hind wings 

 are transparent over about one-half of 

 their area. 



The peach tree borer apparently has a 

 decided preference for the peach tree, as 

 no other plant is so often or so seriously 

 attacked. But the insect does not con- 

 fine itself to the peach, having been 

 19829 Bet Frt Morath 3-17-11 Gal 41 

 found on the cherry, plum, nectarine, 

 apricot, flowering almond and the azalea. 



The "borer" or caterpillar probably 

 never leaves the tree upon which the egg 

 is deposited on the bark, and the insect 

 spends nearly eleven months of its yearly 

 life-cycle on or in the tree. Thus it can 

 easily be transported for long distances 

 on infested trees, and while this is doubt- 

 less the way in which it usually reaches 

 new localities. As large peach trees are 

 rarely moved the growers of nursery 

 stock are mostly responsible for the 

 introduction of the insect into new locali- 

 ties. It is one of the most serious of the 

 insect pests that are now being sent out 

 by nurserymen. When the pest once 

 gets a foothold in an orchard or local- 

 ity it may be slowly distributed from 

 orchard to orchard by the adult insects 

 or moths, which fly readily, but appar- 

 ently not for very long distances. 



The borers often kill young trees by 

 girdling them with their burrows just 

 beneath the bark underground, and thus 

 rendering their destructive work very 

 inconspicuous. Those trees that survive 

 the attacks of the borer are usually 

 easily recognized by their weakened. 



