The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1914-07-13
THE RAILROAD WORM
Insect That Attacks Apples and How
to Kill IL

! " NH u
| A very serious insect pest attack
| ing apples in Bennington county as
well as many other apple sections in
| New England, is the so-called rail
road worm" or apple maggot. Al
| though a native of North America
| and well-known for over fifty years,
little has been accomplished in COM
batting this insect until quite recently.
somewhat of the habits of the apple
maggot, and of the methods for elm
! mating it,
Nearly everyone who is at all ac-
| quainted with apples knows the work
| of the maggot. AS its nam implies
| il is a worm or grub which develops
in the fruit as it grows. Only when
| one cuts open or bites into the apple
is its work revealed. Sometimes there
are but a few brown lines extending
in all directions throughout the flesh
of the apple to show where the mag
| gots have been. In other cases, more
particularly in sweet apples, these
lines are so numerous as to honey
comb" the fruit, causing very rapid
decay.
In order that complete under
standing may be had as to the method
of controlling the maggot, few facts
regarding its life history are neces-
sary. The maggot flies begin TO
emerge about the middle of June and
continue up to the first of August.
They feed constantly on the surface
gum of the fruit and leaves moisten-
ing the surface If necessary with
their saliva. About three weeks after
they emerge, the flies lay their eggs in
the young apples underneath the skin
The eggs hatch in less than a week
and the worms spend about month or
so tunneling through the pulp OF the
apples. After feeding the worms 90
into the ground to remain month in
case Of the early Matched individuals
or all winter if hatched later.
Several methods have been suggest
ed for preventing the ravages of the
apple maggot. 1t was not until three
years ago, however, that reliable
method was discovered. This con-
sists of applying poisoned bait
to the apple tree when the adult in
sects first appear and once or twice
later. The poisoned bait is made
by mixing together l pound of cheap
molasses, 3 ounces arsenate of lead,
and 4 gallons of water. About quart
of this is applied with a spray pump
to each tree of moderate size. IL is
not necessary that the whole tree
be sprayed as the molasses attracts
the insects to the poison. For early
apples two applications should be
made, the first between June 18th
and July LIST, and the second between
July 18th and August LIST. With
later varieties a third application is
necessary, between Aug. 18TH and
Sept. LIST. Should rain come soon af
ter an application is made it is nee
essary to spray again.
The philosophy of the poisoned
bait" method hinges on the habits of
| feeding of the adult maggots. or flies.
Before the flies lay the eggs they Sc
cure their food by sucking gummy
substance from the surfaces of the
| leaves and fruit Spraying the entire
tree with arsenate of lead would poi
son many of the insects, but as there
is no sweeting to attract them 1t
would be a difficult matter to elimin-
ate them because of the difficulty in
covering the entire leaf and fruit sur
face with the poison. Adding the mo
losses is found much more effective,
besides saving materials and time.