The Delta independent., 1908-02-28
Spring Remedies For The
Green Apple Louse.


come so abundant in many of the Colo
RADIO orchards during the past two or
three years spends its winter entirely
in the egg stage. These eggs are
small, shining black objects, resembling
fine gunpowder scattered over the grow
ing twigs of the apple trees. being most
abundant upon the gratis and water
sprouts, as rule. These eggs begin
Matching in the spring, just before the
leaf buds begin to open. and by the
time the buds are well opened nearly
or quite all the eggs have Matched. The
small, dark green lice issuing from these
eggs soon find hiding place in the
folds of the opening leaves. If no ap-
plication is made for their destruction
before these leaf buds are opened and
the lice are well concealed within them
it is practically impossible to make a
treatment that will kill all of them.
The application that seems to be most
effectual is lime sulfur spray, applied
very thoroughly to the trees just before
the buds open in the spring. Whether
this lime-sulfur mixture kills the eggs
or the young lice, has not been very
definitely determined, but in the or
chard experiments of the State Agri-
cultural College better results have
been obtained with this application than
with any other that has been tried.
When the treatment is thoroughly made
at the time above mentioned, it is sell
dom that any lice have been found to
appear upon the trees early in the
season.
None of the lice that hatch from the
eggs acquire wings, and very few of
the young of this first brood become
winged, and, when the third brood ap-
pears a very large proportion develop
wings and spread the species about
from tree to tree and from orchard to
orchard. 1t is largely to avoid this
spreading of these winged lice that we
advise the application so early in the
season. Another good reason for max
ing the application early is to avoid
killing the lady beetles and other plant
louise enemies which become quite
abundant upon the trees soon after the
buds are well opened.
If this early spraying has been neg
lected and the lice become abundant
upon the foliage of the trees, they may
be quite successfully destroyed by a
thorough application of tobacco de-
coction, kerosene emulsion, or whale
oil soap. All of these insecticides kill
by coming in external contact with the
lice, which make it very important that
the application should be very thorough.
To do this it is necessary to use con-
siderable pressure while applying the
spray.
LIME-SuLFUR MIXTURE.
To prepare this mixture, use fifteen
pounds of good lump lime and fifteen
pounds flowers of sulfur to fifty gallons
of water. Slake the lime with warm
water. and when the lime is nearly
slaked and boiling hot add the fifteen
pounds of sulfur with sufficient water
to keep the mixture quite thin. Place
the mixture over fire and boil briskly
for about three-quarters of an hour, or
until the liquid takes on reddish brown
color. which indicates that the lime
has cut the sulfur. In this process use
only water enough to keep the mixture
from getting too thick; then dilute to
the fifty gallons before using.
1t is better to apply at once, and if
the mixture is warm it is all the better
II this lime-sulfur preparation is allow
ed to stand in receptacle over night
large mass of crystals may form at the
bottom. Before using such mixture
again it is better to put it over the fire
and dissolve the crystals, when it will
be as good as it was at first.
If Rex lime-sulfur is used, apply in
the proportion of one gallon of the Rex
to about nine gallons of water.
TOBACCO DECocTIoN.
If one can obtain whole leaf tobacco,
he may make a preparation in the pro-
portion of one pound of the leaves to
four gallons of water. Add enough of
the water to the leaves to thoroughly
cover them and steep just below the
boiling point for fully one hour. Then
dilute to the correct proportions as
stated above and apply.
Many of the fruit growers of the
state have been using Black Leaf Dip
as spray for plant lice. and with most