Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-06-05
CURRENT OR GOOSE
BERRY FRUIT FLY
Experiments with Poisoned
Sweetened Bate and 9th
err Methods of Control
Made in This State

| bushes because the fruit was so badly
| infested with maggots that it could
not be used. These maggots are the
larval stage of banded winged fruit
| ny which pupates in the ground over
winter and energies in the spring in
time to develop eggs to be deposited
in the berries when they are of the
right size.
In view of the fact that poisoned
sweetened bats have been reported
as a successful method of combating
certain other closely related fruit flies,
the Maine Agricultural Experiment
Station has secured the services of
| Doctor II. SEVERN, specialist of long
| experience in this particular line of
work, in order to attack the problem
of the control of the currant or goose
berry fruit fly with the use of poison
ed sweetened bats.
The fact that the egg is deposited
within the berry and the maggot does
| all of its work in the fruit and that
the pupal stage is passed under the
ground makes it a difficult pest to
deal with in these stages. Such rem
edies have been suggested as picking
| the entire crop of berries and destroy
| ing them before they begin to ripen
! and before any begin to drop. BY thus
| sacrificing one crop the entire brood of
| flies would be unable to deposit their
eggs and the patch freed from them
unit! they We're introduced again from
some other source This method when
| consistently carried out over a large
area for one season ought TO reduce
the pest to a minimum for years to
| come. Concerted action of this sort,
! however, is not an easy matter to
bring about and if direct remedy can
| be recommended to those who are in
terested enough in their fruit to take
care of it. the present distressing stu
alton will be relieved.
Another treatment which has been
suggested is the laborious enc of re-
moving about three inches OF soil from
beneath bushes which had been in
Tested. replacing this with fresh soil,
ana then treating the infested soil
containing the puparia, in such way
that when the flies mature they can
not emerge, or by burying the in
tested soil deep enough so that the
flies cannot emerge, or by depositing
the infested soil in a read where the
pupae would be destroyed. AT present
the destruction of the pupae in the in
tested sell by the different methods
suggested are being put to an expert
mental test. About a dozen different
methods of treating the infested soil
without removing it from beneath the
/ bushes are being tested on farm near
I Orcnc.
It has been found that certain other
fruit flies, after issuing from the pu-
pac. lequire two weeks or more before
the eSg-laying period begins, This pc
/ Rod is a feeding period and during
! this time the insect flies about seeking
food, such as the waXy coating Of
fruit, juices of injured fruit or in
tested fallen fruit on the ground. nee
| tar OF IloWers, moisture ON the leaves,
! etc. The greediness of the flies Tor
| sweets is weak point in the life his
! tory of these pests and one can read
/ lily understand that if this sweet Is
poisoned and is within easy reach of
! the flies with their first appearance on
| the wing, no doubt large numbers
| would be killed in the two weeks or
more before the egg-laying period COM
mences. The problem to be worked
/ out, then, is to ascertain what sweet
| cheap enough 10 be economically avail
| able, will attract the current or goose
! berry fruit fly sufficiently to feed upon
/ the poisoned bait.
| Comparatively little work with pois-
! oncd bait for controlling fruit flies
| has been done in the United States but
/ in some other parts of the world this
| method mas been in use for several
| years, III South Africa a decisive DEM
| onstration of the success of poisoned
| diluted molasses to combat the Medi-
| terranean fruit fly was made in the
season of 190S-1909, "A severe out
! break of this fruit fly in a commercial
peach orchard was brought to sud
! den and practically complete halt, and
| the fruit maturing later was marketed
under the guarantee of freedom from
magsots, while the infestation of the
fruit on the control trees increased
until practically every fruit was in
volved."
! In controlling the Mexican or More
| los orange worm a common poisonous
| Mexican nerb has been discovered and
very satisfactory results from the use
of this preparation have been obtained
! in combating the Mexican fruit fly.
| In 1908 the loss to the olive crop in
! Italy amounted to five million dollars
due to the olive fruit fly For a peri
| cd of 10 years Italian entomologists
| have been experimenting with vari-
| Gus formulas OF poisoned Dalt 10 con-
| troll this pest and at present cheap
and practical remedys has been dis
| covered to combat this fruit fly.
| In 1912 similar control measures
| were adopted against the cherry fruit
| flies in New York. The fruit of the un-
| sprayed trees showed an infestation of
| fully one-third of the crop, while only
| 2 per cent was wormy on the treated
| trees. The sprayed fruit showed also
| a noticeable lack of curulio injury.
| During the past season experiments
| with poisoned bait were carried on to
| control the imported onion fy under
| Wisconsin conditions. The results oe-
| tanned against the second brood of
| the pest were most encouraging in
| somewhat isolated onion field.
| Altogether the evidence in favor of
sweetened poisoned bats as a control
| for fruit flies seemed strong enough
| to warrant Investigations under Maine
| conditions with this serious pest of
| the currant and gooseberry.
| CHARLES d. WOODS,