42 



THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



to the State Board, and Alexander Craw, then with the State Commis- 

 sion, determined the species and sent colonies of Aspidiotophagus citri- 

 nus, the supposed parasite. These were reinforced many times, and 

 after thorough inspection I can say I never saw one tenth of one per 

 cent of the scale that were parasitized, and I so reported to the State 

 Commission. I was told that it was very queer, when they did so well 

 elsewhere. Later I had opportunity to observe this scale elsewhere 

 with the following results : I found the scale very bad everywhere that 

 artificial means were not taken to control it. I once had several hundred 

 leaves sent me from Los Angeles County so that I might breed out 

 this parasite. These leaves were thickly covered on both sides with the 

 scale (not a good indication of parasitic work), and I put them into 

 breeding jars and cared for them for a month, but not a single parasite 

 did I get. During a trip to the northern part of this State I looked 

 up the parasite there, and found very little, if any, evidence of their 

 work, but there was plenty of yellow scale everywhere. I found them 

 in the Capitol grounds at Sacramento and on trees at Marysville, 

 Yuba City, and Oroville. So, I was forced to the conclusion that the 

 Aspidiotophagus citrinus was not to be relied on. The reputed parasite 

 is a golden chalcid fly, whose method is like that of the Scutellista, 

 i. e., wherever it Avorks you will find the small round hole in the scale 

 where it makes its exit. 



Somewhere about the year 1891 or '92 Albert Koebele, who had been 

 sent abroad by the State Board of Horticulture, sent among other 

 parasites a steel-blue ladybird {Orchns chalyheus) , to prey upon the 

 red scale, and these ladybirds were liberated in the Kerchival orchard 

 in Los Angeles, but after much time the decision was arrived at that 

 they were not equal to the task. They are still to be seen occasionally 

 in the coast counties, but not in sufficient numbers to do much good. 



For a number of years we have been told that one of the Rhizohiids 

 was preying upon the purple scale, viz., F. lophantae, but I venture to 

 assert that a person untrained in this line would need to be told that 

 they were working. Later, the State Commission of Horticulture 

 received a new parasite for the red and purple scales and sent experts 

 to breed them in the worst infested orchards, but after a lapse of 

 considerable time they appear to diminish in numbers rather than 

 multiply, and we can place nothing to their credit. 



Mealy bugs {Pseudococciis citri) bid fair to be a most serious trouble. 

 They have a number of enemies, one of them Cryptolaemus montrou- 

 zieri, but their control of the insect is only partial, and so not satis- 

 factory. 



The introduced parasite for the widespread enemy of the apple 

 grower, the codling moth, Carpocapsa pomonella, is Caliephialtes 

 messor. It works well in confinement when supplied with larva or 

 cocoons of the moth, but after a number of years' trial in the orchards 

 has no friends to sound its praises. 



The cutworms, Agrotis saucia and Peridroma saiicia, are periodical 

 enemies and general feeders. The moths lay the eggs, and later the cut- 

 worms emerge. These dark colored moths may be seen fijdng in the 

 twilight over the flowers and elsewhere. They usually lay their eggs 

 in ^larch, and the worms appear in April. We are troubled with them, 

 sometimes once in two years, and sometimes only once in four years. 



