278 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 16 
five weeks, when all larvae had reached maturity and left the fruit, our 
records showed that the two and one-half bushels of peach drops yielded 
12,093 matured larvae. The adults that would have ultimately re¬ 
sulted from the infested drops in this orchard could have easily caused a 
heavy infestation in a 100,000 tree orchard by harvest time if uncon¬ 
trolled. 
This supplementary control measure of gathering up the drops was 
continued in this orchard each week during the season until the smaller 
fruits had stopped falling, and the spray schedule as recommended was 
carried through to the letter. The orchard was also disced several 
times for the destruction of first generation pupae about June 1. During 
the past season, 1922, two and one-half bushels of drops were again 
collected at approximately the same time as those in 1921, and placed in 
wire bottom boxes. After all larvae had left the fruit our records 
showed that the two and one-half bushels of drops this year gave only 
2,752 larvae. The control measures enforced during the 1921 season 
were unquestionably largely responsible for this big reduction in the 
infestation. 
The very small peaches that fall first are the ones that contain most of 
the larvae, and the percentage of infested drops decreases as the larger 
fruits fall. Under normal conditions it would not be economical for 
Southern peach growers to make more than three collections of drops, 
making the first soon after the shucks shed, and the other two at in¬ 
tervals of five or six days. Results of some recent experimental work 
along this line, where the drops were collected from a large orchard 
regularly every few days and placed in separate wire trays, showed 
that the first collection of drops, which was made shortly after the 
shucks had been pushed off, contained 62.6 percent of the larvae collected 
in dropped peaches in this orchard during the entire season. The 
second collection made five days later contained 16.7 percent of the 
larvae, the third collection 9 percent, the fourth 2 percent, and so on. 
Over one-half of the larvae were contained in the first fruit collected, 
and the first three collections gave over 88 percent. These figures 
substantiate the results of former experiments in that the bulk of the in¬ 
festation in drops will be found in the smallest peaches that fall first. 
The cost of this operation is surprisingly low. Much of the early 
opposition to this control measure was based on the fear that the ex¬ 
pense would be too heavy. Actual figures obtained on the cost of 
picking up drops in both commercial and experimental orchards average 
two and one-tenth cents per tree for the three collections. In one 
