The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-11-25
DEATH TO SAN JOSE SCALE
Little Insect With Long Greek Name the Hymenopteron
Eat the Vitals Out of Pest That Has Cost Us Millions

.rne man who raises peaches and
.,nlos in the future instead of de-
ending on his spraying machine to
I'm off the San Jose scale will sick"
+ra bymenopteron on it. That's
nauy one. 1t is a minute insect, just
,nnonnced by science, that preys on
tba San Jose scale. 1t eats it. Now
tho fear is that some other insect
,,,iu come along and devour the hy-
menopteron.
prof. H. A. Surface, the state 20.
olopist of Pennsylvania, announces
the new bug. which he says is sure
5eatb to the scale insect, since it
braads within the scale and devours
;ts very life to get its own growth.
The very discovery of the hymenop-
taron was made through the holes it
horad in the shell of the San Jose
scale to get out after having eaten
the vitals of the scale.
To get the complete history of the
process it is necessary to go back
ohout 20 years, to the time the San
lose scale made its unWelcome entry
into this country from Japan. 1t
came as parasite on some plum
frees Because its first depredations
of Importance were committed near
San Jose, Cal, it annexed the name
of that city and brought disgrace to
an innocent community.
In the 20 years it has cost the
country millions of dollars. 1t has
destroyed not only apple orchards,
but all kinds of fruit trees as well.
The San Jose scale is a minute suck
ing parasite. In its infant form it is
a microscopic pulpy mass. Wax ex-
udes from the back of the infant,
crusts over, and under this shell the
parasitic sucks the life blood of the
free. Millions of them at work at
once sap the vitality from an orch
ard in a season or two. Life that
should flow into the fruit for humans
TO eat flows instead into the San Jose
scale to make more San Jose scale.
The hymenopteron-ge that
name?-comes along. 1t is micro
SCODlt lllSSCL ~ yOu NoAh oCS
it. 1t takes 1875 of him to make
respectable bug an inch long. The
name tells what it is. It's Greek.
The tail end of the name, the ''pter-
on" part, means skin or membrane.
1t is a second or third cousin to the
bee and the wasp, the family char
acteristics being the antennae, or
feelers in front; the four membran-
GUS wings and the ovipositor, or
sting, in the rear. Watch that owl
positor; that's the business end of
the bug. Ovipositors are worn only
by the lady hymenoptera; they are
the egg depositors.
They are busy as bees, those lady
hymenoptera. When they find a nice
juicy San Jose scale, lazily sucking
the Juice of a fruit tree, they jab the
ovipOstor into its vitals. This may
be painful to the scale for the mo-
ment, which doubtless raises its hand
to brush away the sting, but by this
time the egg Is laid. Pretty soon it
matches out. The infant hymenop-
ltlUu 10 IuoIy anu AAhS AAASNS
infants. In it's helpless infancy it is
called a 'arva. 1t eats and eats, and
its food is the vitals of the San Jose
scale 1t grows out o. the helpless
maggotty stage into what the sci
entists call the pupa-the 0vergroWn
kid. 1t eats more. Pretty soon the
scale sucked dry by its voracious
boarder, gives up the ghost. The
young hymenopteron's appetite is
still strong; it eats its way through
the hard outer shell of the scale and
flies away to set up housekeeping for
itself.
Incidentally the apple Tree is rel
leyed Of its parasite by the parasite
that feeds on the parasite. AS wise
old Dean Swift said:
And these have smaller still to bite
So naturalists observe, flea
Has smaller fieas that on him prey;
These have smaller still to bite 'em,
And so proceed ad infinitum.
Prof. Surface avers-and it pays
to listen to what the insect sharps
say-that if you will turn loose in
your orchard a few billion hymenop-
terra they will do the rest. You need