The Holt County sentinel., 1902-06-27
AN EXPENSIVE MOTH.
It Eats up About $25. ZOO. 900 Every
Year.

Although it costs the farmers OF
New York state one third of the apple
and pear crop every year." said an ento,
molOgist, (which means in money al
least s3,OOO,0 600, and that is less than
one-eighth of what it costs the farmers
and fruit growers annually in the coun.
try at large, scarcely one farmer or fruit
grower in ten ever saw codling moth.
Yet the insect during its breeding sea-
son is busy by tens Of thousands in
every orchard.
TIE reason why the codling moth Is
seen so rarely is that it alone among the
many varieties of moths has not the
habit of being attracted at night by a
light or flame, and it has the faculty of
secreting itself so completely during the
day that the most violent disturbance
OF it's retreat does not cause it to take
wing or move from its lurking places in
the orchard trees, the rough scaly bark
OF which it so closely resembles that
even if one Of the insects were resting
on the exterior of the bark it would
defy the sharpest of eyes to detect.
"A flaming torch placed at night I'M
der every tree in an orchard would fail
to draw single codling moth from its
work of egg laying in the trees. although
its cousins of all varieties would be has
tening from all directions to meet de
struction in the fascinating flame.
''The average lay persons knows moth
ing about the codling moth in its rela
ton to the worm he finds so frequently
in the apple he bites into, and, as a
matter of fact, it is only within recent
years that professional entomologists
even have acquainted themselves with
the entire life history of the inset.
"The cooling moth energies from its
cocoon about ten days after the apple
blossoms have fallen from the trees in
the spring and the young fruit is grown
to perhaps an inch in diameter. The
cocoons lie beneath the scaly bark of
the apple tree trunks.
1.-THE moth is about half an inch long
and has four wings. 1t comes from the
Cocoon at night and at once begins de-
posting its eggs. A codling moths
egg is nearly fat and not larger than a
small pinhead. So small is it that, al
though the moth has been known to
naturalists for nearly three centuries, it
was only four or FIVE years ago its eggs
we're discovered and described.
1.-THE egg is deposited and glued to
the surface Of the apple, only a single
egg on an apple. II one codling moth
finds that another one has already fas.
tened an egg on an apple it will not
leave an egg Of its own there. but will
seek UMPIRE empted fruit.
Each moth lays from eighty to one
hundred eggs. The egg matches a tiny
worm at the end Of perhaps ten days,
always at night
"Tbe worm at once crawls to the
bios som end of the apple, enters the
cavity there and tunnels down to the
core, where it feasts and grows and
fattens on the heart Of the fruit. and at
the end of a month tunnels it's way
back to the surface, emerging a plump
pinkish caterpillar, three-quarters Of an
inch long, always coming out at night
In truth, this creature, at all stages of
its existence. seems to love darkness
better than light.
ut makes its way without delay to
the trunk of the tree, where it wraps it.
self about with it's cocoon beneath a
scale Of bark, and remains
there in hiding until it in turn develops
into moth the next season, or, if the
fruit in which it had its home be an
early variety, the same season, in which
case the caterpillar undergoes double
Tiny as the codling moths egg is,
there is fly so small that it can deposit
IS many as four of its own eggs in a
single egg of the moth. This fy's egg
hatch worms that devour the embryo of
the moth in the egg, and thus hosts Of
the moths ravenous progency are de-
,troy ed before they have begun active
life
"Other parasite enemies of the cater
pillar make away with untold numbers
IF the insects, and vast numbers of the
,ocoons are uncovered and their con-
.ents devoured by woodpeckers and
,ther lnsectivorous birds, but enough
come to maturity to assess bounty of
s25, OOO, 600 year on the farmers of the
to keep them in board and
odging.
Nothing but spraying the trees with
! solution of Paris green during the
period when the worms are on their
way from the egg to tunnel into the
lpple at the blossom end check the raw
.ges of the pest. and this the farmers as
! rule resolutely persist in not doing.