Arizona republican., 1891-02-12
TIE COOLING MOTH.
The Great Enemy of the Apple, Fear and
 Ouince-How to Control It.

The most costly enemy with which the apple, pear and quince grower has to contend is the codling moth. It is especially injurious to winter apples and pears. It has caused the abandonment of many fine orchards. It was introduced on this coast from the Eastern states and into them from Europe.
 It is the larva or caterpillar of small pretty little moth, with a spread of wings of about three-fourths of an inch; rests with its wings closed, and flies only at night or at twilight and very cloudy days. The general color of the moth is a gray drab or ash. It may be readily dis tinguished from all other moths by bright metallic bronze spots near the apex of its anterior, or forward palr of wings.
 Its habits are different in one particu- lar on this coast than in the East. There the moth lays the eggs for the first brood nearly invariably in the eye or calyx of the young fruit. Here she lays later and on any part of the fruit, but as general rule on the upper side of it. Its charac- teristics are substantially as follows:
 The moths begin to appear about the time the blossoms begin to fall from the trees. They mate and soon the females begin to deposit their eggs. Each fe- male lays about 25O eggs. In eight to ten days the eggs hatch and the tiny worm at once proceeds to eat its way to the core of the apple, where it feeds rav- enously on the embryo seeds and sur rounding envelopes and pulp. In about twenty daysit has matured, and burrows its way out at the side of the fruit, usually at evening or night, and lowers itself to the ground by its web, or crawls down to the trunk of the tree. In either case it generally seeks a shelter in the curling. dead bark of the tree as safe place in which to spin itself up in its cocoon. Whence in about ten days it emerges as a moth. Some observers maintain that in the warmer districts, three or four generations appear in one season, But my conclusions are that this Is not correct.
 Nearly all writers on this insect have blundered in saying the worm leaves the apple in daylight, and that the apple often falls to the ground with the worm inside It is seldom that an apple can be found on the ground with the worm still ill it, except in overripe ones in aut- umn. And as a rule the worm never leaves the apple until well into twilight or night These habits protect it from death by the fruit being eaten, and from birds and predacious insects that would create sad havoc with such defenseless, nice, fat tid-bit, if it exposed itself in daylight.
 Again, many have been induced by mistakes of writers to go to great ex- pense in placing bright lights in their orchards, surrounded with moth traps and even with peculiar smells added, to entiCe the moth to its destructiOn; and to hang in the branches of trees vessels filled with different foods, drinks and smells in liquid form, so as to inveigle the moth to drown itself therein. The facts are, it being a twilight insect it naturally shuns lights of all kinds, and having only rudimentary mouth parts, it is incapable of taking any food, liquid or sold, during its life as a moth. Its smelling apparatus has not been fully studied, but it is safe to say it would never be drawn into trouble by anything it could smell. This moth is a thoroughly protected insect. It has few insect ene- mics, lately noticed, that may in time get the best of it. One evening late in autumn while asserting a great pile of apples in an orchard, as twilight ap- preached, the codling worms began to leave the pile of apples in large numbers. The common yellow yellow jackets had not gone to bed yet, and they nipped up every worm as soon as it left cover and carried it away to their nests.
 Great effort should be made to kill all the moths as they appear in the spring, and the second brood in autumn and winter. The spring brood can be well nigh annihilated by spraying all apple. pear and quince trees as soon as the flowers have fallen, with spray made by constantly stirring while in use one pound of paris green in 150 gallons of water, then repeating the dose at inter vals of two weeks, giving three sprays.
 All rough bark should be scraped from the trees. Then about the middle of May cloth bands made from coarse sacking, should be wound around the trunk of each tree, midway between the ground and the branches. The eighth day after these are placed in position they should be taken off and all the CO., Coons under them mashed and the bands replaced, This process should be re- peated every eighth day throughout the season until August. After that leave the bands in position until March, and then kill again. The autumn work is equally important. Every one who has an orchard of the above fruits should have, as far from the orchard as conven- tent, an asserting and packing house, into which the fruit should be stored until marketed. The house should be practically tight, with plenty of win dows covered with fine wire gauge. Such house would be cooler if plas- tered. Then, as soon as all the fruit is marketed, place every box, basket, lad der, everything used in handling the fruit, into the packing house and close it until the next June. Then if the building is tight, as it should be, the moths cannot get out, and will be found dead on the wire screens by the tens of thousands.
 No board fences, nor anything else, which the worm can safely spin up in, should be permitted around an orchard. S,,nL ir thn n,nicn nf rronl co,,rl f,.,.it