Sharp County record., 1881-06-23
Tie Apple Worm.

The anple-worm is among the worst
enemies with which the truit-growel
has to contend; livingas it does, hidden
from view, it is not very often de-
strOycd Dy either birds or insects. II
does not cOnline its attacks to the apple,
but also infests crab-apples, pears,
peaches. and even plums. The last
brood of worms spin their cocOons in
the autumn and remain in them un-
changed until the following spring,
when they are changed to chrysalides,
and about two weeks later to moths;
thuiattcr are commonly called "cOdhng-
moths" AbOHt the middle Of May
these moths deposit their eggs singly
upou the Young fruit, usually placing
them upon the blossom end, but some
times also upon the opposite end, and
rarely upou the sides. As soon rs
Matched the young worm burrows into
the fruit. casting its excrements and
other refuse matter out of the hole by
which il had entered the fruit. 1t
reaches its full growth in about one
month and then measures about one
half nm inch in length Its body is pro-
vided with sixteen feet, is of yellow
ish color, usually tinged with pink, and
marked with u few polished, raised,
dark-coiored spots; the head and spot
on top OF the first segment are polished
brown. When about to assume the
chrysalis form the worm deserts the
fruit and crawls beneath q piece of
loose bark. or any other object which
offers it shelter, and after gnawing
out an oval cavity spins therein thin
whitish cocoon. There are two broOds
of these worms produced in one year,
but these brOOds overlap each other, SO
that worms of all sizes may be found at
almost any season of the year. The
fruit infested by the worms Of the first
brood usually falls to the ground
before the worms have deserted
it, but that infested by those of
the second brood usually remains upon
the trees until harvested, and the
worms are thus carried to the store
house or cellar.
In our warfare upon this insect our
first work in the spring should be to
carefully examine the bins and barrels
in which the apples have been stored
and destroy all of the worms and co.
coOns that can be found; this can
prObably be done the easiest by the use
of hot water. Later in the season the
ground beneath the infested trees
should be examined daily, and the
fallen apples gathered and either fed to
the hogs. or such use made of them as
will destroy the worms which they ycOn-
tain; or, if the hogs are allowed to run
in the orchard, they viii devour the
fallen fruit. and thus saveus the trouble
of gathering it.
Prof. A. J. Cook, of the Michigan
Agricultural College, recommends thor
oughly Swinging the infested trees
with a solution of Paris-green, or Lon
don-purple and water, using two table
spoonfuls OF the former, or one OF the
latter. to two gallons of water. He
states that on the 25th of May, and
again on the Goth OF June, he thor
Oughlv sprayed the same Siberian crab
apple hpes with this liquid; the fruit
of the trees had Seen serlouslyriniurvd
whenever they had borne in previous
years, vet careful search made on the
10Th OF the following August failed to
discover q single injured apple, al
though the fruit on other trees only a
few yards off, but not treated with this
liquid, were very much infested with
the worms, one-fourth to one-half be-
ing wormy. To ascertain whether the
fruit had retained any of the poison, he
cut off pieces from some that grew in
places that had been sprayed so mnch
as to destroy the foliage, and sent them
90 q chemist; the latter could find no
traces of the poison, it having been APP
piled so early in the season that the
rains had washed it all Off before the
fruit matured. A safer plan is to place
around the trunk of the infested trees
baudages of paper, beneath which
many of the worms will crawl and spin
their cocoons. For this purpose COM
mon straw wrapping paper may be used;
it is usually sold in sheets lSX20 inches,
and each sheet folded thrice upon itself
gives eight layers, between two and
three inches wide, and long enough to
reach around most ordinary trees.
Pass one of these around the trunk OF
each infested tree and fasten with a
tack. This should be done about the
first week in June; about two weeks
afterward they should be carefully re-
moved. and the larvae and pupe found
beneath them DESTROYED, and, as the
larv,e are sometimes hidden within the
folds of the bandageS, some method
must be adopted that will destroy these.
As the baudages are so cheap. they
NAV be burned and replaced with new
ones; or a quantity of them may be col
lected in basket and taken to some
convenient place and be run through
clothes-wringer and then be replaced
upon the trees. The great drawbacks
To this method is that the worms are
not DESTROYED until they have done al
the damage they are capable of doing
Although much safer in its application
than Prof. Cook method, it is not neal
50 effective, since the latter not only
destroys the worms before they have
had time to injure the fruit very mucf
but also destroys the canker-worms anC
other leaf-eating insects.-D. W. 20
Qptllette, in Germant01Cn Telegraph.