The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-07-08
THE NOXIOUS INSECTS OF
NORTH CAROLINA.

Insects Injurious to Fruit Trees--Cod-
ling Worm--Canker Worm
Borers--Curculio.
81 GERALD MCCARTHY, B. SC, N. C. EXPERIMENT
STATION.
TSEvENTH PAPER
THE CoDLING woRM-C arpocG0psG pomo-
meUG.
The cooling worm, long the terror
of apple growers, is a European pest
introduced here about 1900. Its
ravages have been enormous, but
thanks to the use Of Paris green, it
can now be kept under control oy any
n who will take proper and timely
precautions. The moth which is the
parent of the codling worm appears
in orchards from April 18th to June
18th, according to latitute and the
earliness of the season. The female
lays about 800 eggs -one IN the bios
som end of each apple just after the
flower has fallen. The worm matches
in a few days and at nee bores its
way to the core and continues to eat
and grow. The irritation produced
by the worm causes the fruit to fall
before It is ripe. These are the "wind-
fall" apples. The worm as soo as
full grown leaves the apple and makes
for the tree again, up which it crawls,
and under the bark of which it
spins it's cocoon. Here it transforms
to the winged state, to once mOr be-
gin another cycle of eggs, worms an
moths. There are two or three broods
of worms annually. The insect passes
the winter IN the dormant pupa state
hidden under piles of trash in the
orchard or in bins and boxes in which
apples are stored.
REMEDIES.
The most effectual remedy is to
spray the trees with a mixture of
London purple or Paris green-one
pound to 200 gallons of water JUST
AFTER THE FLOWERS HAVE FALLEN N
BEFORE THE APPLE TURNS DOWN. The
spraying should not be done sooner,
because it will poison bees and will do
no good against the moth. As supple
mentary to spraying with poison, hogs
should be kept in the orchard to pick
up and eat all wiRdfalls, which always
contain worms. There is no danger
to hogs from the small quantity of
poison used, nor is the forage value of
grass growing in the orchard at all
hurt by the drip from sprayed trees.
Where hogs a not be kept, fallen
apples should be picked up as soon
as possible and at once plunged into
boiling wafer for five minutes to kill
the worms inside. Where none Of
these methods are used, the worms
may be trapped by lacking pieces of
cloth Carpet is bes) to the tree trunk
just below the crotch. These cloths
mus be examined every day and the
worms or pupa found concealed LIED
by crushing or shaking them into a
vessel containing water and kerosene.
The parent moth is a night fjer and a
lantern trap kept in the orchard will
xii. hundreds of them before they
have deposited eggs. Each female
killed 200 apples saved.
THE CANKER woRM-An5sopteryr ger
nGta.
Tue canker worm attacks chiefly
the apple and elm, but the cherry,
plum, linden and numerous shrubs
also suffer. The female canker moth
is wingless. She deposits her eggs
about lOO-during early spring in
i IS around the bark of the smaller
twigs of the apple and other trees.
The eggs hatch into very small worms
about the time the leaves begin to ap-
pear and the leaves are at once at
tackled by the worms which bore anl
riddle them with holes. The worms
also as soon as the flower buds swell
bore into them, causing the flowers to
abort. When full grown the worms
are about one inch long, ashen gray
above, but black and yelloH striped
underneath.
REMEDIES.
The spraying employed for the cod
ling moth will also kill all the canker
worms then on the trees, but the
canker worm commences its ravages
much sooner than the codling worm.
Hence a supplementary remedy will
be advisable. An excellent remedy
is to prevent the wingless female from
ascending the tree to deposit her eggs.
To effect this, tack around the tree,
below the crotch, a half-inch rope and
over this a band of tin p inches wide
so that above and below the rope
there will be a free edge of tin one
inch wide. The rope must be so
closely tackled to the tree that the in.
sect cannot creep under it. Being
wingless the female cannot get above
the tin and will lay her eggs on the
bark below this barrier, where they
may De destroyed by washing the
trunk with the kerosene emulsion so
often recommended. If hogs are kept