The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-07-05
THE COOLING MOTH.
THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE
APPLE GROWER.

THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE
APPLE GROWER.
Causing Yearly Loss Of Fully $780,
OOO.OOO-A Destructive Insect Very
Seldom Seen Because It Works Only
at Night.
According to Prof. Forbes, the en-
tnent entomologist, who has made
careful experiments and observations
regarding the subject, one-half Of the
apple crop of Illinois is annually de-
stroyed by the apple worm, the cater
pillar of the codling moth, involving a
loss each year to the farmers and fruit
growers Of the state of more than ST.
$4,000. The annual destruction to the
apple crop by this pest and consequent
loss to the farmers in the country at
large is estimated to be $25 1000 1000
and yet, according to Prof. Singer
land. the entomologist of Cornell Uni
verlsty at Ithaca, N. Y, not one fruit
grower in ten ever saw cooling moth
although it is busy at work every sea-
son In their orchards by the tens of
thousands, and moths of almost every
other kind are familiar sight to the
farmer and. fruit grower. The reason
for this is that the cooling moth does
not have the universal habit of other
moths, that of being attracted by
light or flame at night, and it so COM
pletely secretes itself during the day
that the most violent disturbance of
it's retreats rarely causes it to take
wing or to emerge from it's hiding
places about the orchard trees, the
rough, scaly bark of which it so close
ly resembles that even if one were
resting on the exterior of the bark of
the tree it would defy the sharpest
eyes to detect it. A flaming torch
placed at night under every tree in
an orchard would fail to draw single
cooling moth from it's work of egg
laying in the trees, although its nu-
merous varieties of cousins would be
Fastening from all directions to meet
destruction in the fascinating blaze.
The codling moth energies from it's
cocoon about ten days after the apple
blossoms have fallen from the trees in
the spring, by which time the young
| fruit is grown sufficiently for the
| moths purpose. The cocoons are be-
| meath the scaly bark on the apple
! tree trunks. The moth, which is
about half an inch long, comes out at
night, and at once begins depositing
it's eggs. A codling moths egg is
nearly fiat, and no larger than small
pin head So small is it, and almost
lmperceptible on the apple, that al
though the codling moth has been
known to naturalists nearly three cen
turtles, it was only four years ago that
its eggs were positively identified and
described. The moth places but one
egg on an apple. If one codling moth
finds that another one has already de-
posted an egg on an apple it does not
leave one<of it's own there, but seeks
unpreempted fruit Each moth lays
from eighty to 100 eggs. The egg
matches a tiny worm at the end OF
ten days, always at night. The worm
at once craWls to the blossom end OF
the apple, enters the cavity there, and
|
feasts and fattens on the heart of the
apple, and tunnels it's way to the sur
face at the end Of month"; emerging
a plump, pink worm, three-quarters
Of an inch long, always coming out at
night. 1t makes its way without de-
lay to the trunk of the tree, where ii
spins about itself it's silken cocoon
beneath sheltering scale of bark
and remains there in hiding until it in
turn develops into moth, to continue
the perpetuation of its pestiferous
kind.
Tiny as the codling moths egg is
there is fly so small that it can de-
post as many as four of it's own eggs
in a single egg of the moth The
ay's eggs hatch worms that devour the
moths embryo in the egg, and thus
hosts of the ravenous insects are de-
stroyed before they have begun active
life. Other parasitic enemies of the
caterpillar make way with untold
numbers of the insects at that stage of
their existence, and night birds de-
stroy myriads of the moths. Vast
numbers of the cocoons are uncovered
and their contents devoured by wood
| peckers and other insectivorous birds,
but enough come to maturity to levy
on the farmers of the country boun-
ty of SIS 100000 year to keep them in
board and lodging. Nothing but spray
ing the trees with a solution of Paris
green has any effect decreasing the
annual loss in crop, and. in checking
the ravages of the pest and this spray
ing the farmer, as a rule, resolutely
persists in not doing.
High Explosives for War.