REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST IQI7 47 
examined in particular. These observations were fully borne out by 
the condition of the fruit at picking time, it being much freer from 
infestation than was the case in 1916. 
Pear thrips (Taeniothrips pyri Daniel). This insidious 
and perplexing pest continues abundant and locally injurious in the 
Germantown fruit section and also in the pear-growing region about 
and especially west and south of Poughkeepsie. Reports from 
other parts of the State indicate comparatively little damage from 
this insect. 
The practical difficulties of controlling pear thrips are indicated 
by the following: An examination April 23, 1917 of the orchard of 
C. H. Deuell & Son, Bangall, showed that many of the blossom buds 
had expanded to a length of one-half of an inch or so and had been 
or were being invaded by many thrips. This was true not only of a 
small orchard back of the barn where the infestation of earlier 
years was most serious and the spraying of the preceding season 
less satisfactory, but also of the orchard just beyond the creek 
where the treatment the preceding spring with a thick lime sulphur 
wash was as nearly perfect as could be expected under practical 
conditions and where there were hopes that the numbers of the pest 
would be considerably decreased as a result of the treatment, par- 
ticularly as observations in May and early June of last year showed 
that a considerable portion of the crop escaped injury and the 
presence of a relatively small number of thrips. 
It was found last April that individual buds in the orchard 
beyond the creek had been invaded by two, three, five or six and in 
a few cases fifteen or twenty of the insects. Those attacked by the 
larger numbers were in a sticky condition and showed considerable 
dead tissue, especially in spots here and there. Such blossoms will 
probably develop no fruit. The spraying with a thick lime sulphur 
wash was then in progress and while a few insects were killed on the 
outside of infested blossoms, a considerable proportion, three- 
fourths to seven-eighths approximately, escaped injury and would 
presumably be unaffected. There were some trees in the orchard 
near the barn which had been sprayed on the afternoon of April 
20th and these blossom buds showed much less injury; the few 
thrips found in them had evidently entered within the last day or 
two. These conditions indicated a much greater degree of pro- 
tection from the spraying given on the 20th than that which would 
be secured from an application on the 23d. Mr Deuell stated that 
very few insects were seen on the earlier date and that stormy 
