The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-10
ENEMIES OF OUR FRUITS
INSECTS THAT DESTROY PRODUCTS
OF FIELDS AND ORCHARDS.
Description of Three Injurious Pests,
with Methods of Abating Them-san
Jose scale and White Ant.

Jose scale and White Ant.
AS knowledge increases we become more
and more familiar with the fact that it is
the small things that accomplish the great
est results. Microscopic organisms cause
the diseases which are the great scourges
to the human race. One microscopic bac-
terum produced disease in the potato
which caused a failure of that crop in Ire
land; famine resulted which finally led
to a war. Our fields. orchards and granar-
les are teeming with insect enemies which
annually destroy billions of dollars worth
of our products; yet it is done so constantly
and gradually that we scarcely comprehend
its immensely. Many of these pests could
easily be controlled or exterminated if we
would only take the pains and time to COM
bat them at the proper stage. In order to
do this successfully it is necessary to know
the life history of our enemy. In the fol-
lowing paper l will attempt to give brief
account of three common and very injurious
insects The object in selecting these is that
they are not generally well understood ex-
cept by the professional entomologist:
/ will speak first of the fall web worm
(Hypantrixtextor, Harris) About the mid
die of June, a few weeks later, we begin
to see the outer ends of the branches of
many of our fruit trees, and also of num-
Der Of our forest trees, adorned with
smoky-looking web. The green PUPPY
portion of the leaves, as far as the web eX-
tends, has been eaten away and only the
branches, damaged fruit and skeletons of
the leaves remain. These webs enlarge
daily until finally they may grow to be more
than yard in diameter; and one tree may
have as many as a dozen or twenty such
burnt-looking places in its top, representing
so many colonies. This is the work of the
fall web worm, whose life history is as fol-
lows: During May a small milkywhite
miller, which measures about one inch
across the expanded wings, deposits broad
patch of greenish-looking eggs on the under
side OF the leaves. The insect flies only at
night, and, therefore, is seldom seen. In
the course of ten or fifteen days these eggs
hatch out a brood of tiny, hungry cater
pillars, which at once begin eating the soft
parts of the leaves, and at the same time
spin web over the entire field of their
work, so that they are constantly under
it's protection. When fun grown they are
about one and one-quarter inch in length;
a dirty yellow or slightly greenish color,
notified with darker dots and dim stripes;
the whole back is covered with long yellow
ish hairs. During September or October
the caterpilars leave the tent, and, after
short spell of general foraging descend to
the ground, where they bury themselves
short distance under the surface OF the
earth or under rubbish, and soon enter the
chrysais stage and remain so until the fol-
lowing spring, when this stage is changed
and they again come forth as white millers.
During recent years this insect has been
constantly growing more abundant; l
first noticed it several years ago on trees in
Mount Carmel, but it is rapidly spreading
to the orchards and borders of fields in all
directions until there are probably few
farms in this county that are not infested
by it. 1t is seldom seen in forests away
from fields. 1t is a voracious feeder, and
will thrive on a great variety of trees. /
have seen it on the apple, plum, cherry,
pear, grape, elm oak, ash. hickory, willow,
box elder, beech, sycamore currant, black
berry mulberry, Usage orange, white pop
lar, ounce, persimmon. black gum sweet
gum cotton plant and wild cherry. The
web is an advertisement by means of which
the presence of these insects is readily de-
tected and if the twigs which they oc-
cur are early cut off and burned the whole
colony is at once destroyed. This treatment
is so simple and so efficient that it is I'M
necessary to mention any other If each
person would clear his own premises of
these tents when they first make their APP
pearance it would be a very light task; it
would save his trees, cause them to look
better and the insect would in short time
be entirely exterminated. This caterpillar
is readily distinguished from other tent
| making insects by the fact that it does not
leave the tent to feed, but first spins it's
web over the leaves and then devours them.
However, there would be no serious mistake
in destroying all insect tents found on our
trees. This insect is rapidly increasing is
capable of doing much damage, is readily
destroyed, and should receive attention at
once.
THE WHITE ANT.
The white ant belongs TO family of in
sects that is one of the most ancient and
at the same time most interesting group of
animated beings They constituted one of
the characteristic features on this planet
during the carboniferous period, the time
during which our coal beds We're being
formed They are usually classed with the
ants by those not familiar with modern
classifications, but they belong to a wholly
different order of insects, the Pseudoneurop-
quito-hawks and may-flies, which claim a
much higher antiquity than ants do. White
ants are classed with bees and wasps in the
Hymenoptora. They are readily dis
tinguished from the common ants by the
fact that the body is not joined to the head
by slender pedicle, waist, as is the case
in all true ants. Yet many of their habits
are similar to those of the true ants MANY
Of the species live in mounds or hills. fire.
quently of great size, which they construct
| and use as home. AS is the case with
many of the true ants the descendants Of
the same parents are differentiated into
several social castles and classes. In the
same brood there are soldiers and workers
both of which are blind and sexuaIlv llnde-
veloped; then there are kings and queens
(males and females). who for a few hours
bear wings, and whose DEVELOPMENT is in
every way perfect and who become the
parents of future generations. The workers
do all the work and provide the food for
the colony, while the soldiers stand guard
over them and the home and furiouslv and
fearlessly attack every enemy which an
proaches. The kings and queens do nothing
but propagate the species: the care of the
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