Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1919-06-19
Another Army Arrives.
Many Million Strong. 1t De-
scends On Maryland Cities
And Towns.


And Towns.
The State Board of Forestry has
had so many inquiries of late in re-
gard to serious trouble whic' is af-
fecting the foliage of shade trees all
over the State, that it takes this OPP
portunity to call the attention OF the
tree-loving public to recognition OF
the damage which this army can do
to the young growth on trees.
Have you noticed the White Oak
leaves curled up and brown-have
you observed Maple and Elm leaves
covered with sticky substance which
gives them the appearance OF being
varnished-has your attention been
called to the swarms of ants marching
up and down the trunks of affected
trees? Follow up any or all of these
clues and you will find the twigs and
and the under side of leaves literally
swarming with little insects which
are known as plant lice or aphlds.
This is the invading army and it
should be met, not with flags fly
ing and showers of candy, but with
spray pumps and showers of poison
spray.
Though the entomologists tell us
that there are about 325 species OF
the plant life so that there is a kind
for almost every variety of plant, yet
they all have the common character
istic of being so small and soft. bodied
and tender that you can yet the
hardly pick up one without killing it.
question then naturally arises how
can such delicate organism be-
come such menace to thrifty trees
and the answer is numbers, sheer
overwhelming numbers. The aphids
are the charter members of the anti
I race-suicide club. By way OF bit
of arithmetic, let US follow one egg
through summer season, just one
egg that was tucked away in shell
tered crevice in the bark over winter
and Matched out about the time the
leaves burst forth on neighbor Brown S
vigorous young maple tree. This
young aphid, when about three days
old is mature enough to produce young
aphids alive at the rate of ten IA day,
and these ten in turn, when from
three to five days old, is capable of
producing young aphids at the same
rate as the mother, so at the end OF
two weeks we have the amazing total
of | ,54S, 726 aphids, at least that was
the number attained just before we
broke the adding machine. Now, if
weather conditions were favorable,
this would continue until fall, At
which time the original female would
have become the progenitor of nearly
six billion offspring. You will have
to take the scientists word for that
for, as mentioned before, the adding
machine refused to register much at
ter the first million and half. For
tunately for US there are genenerally
cold, wet spring days which the ten
der aphids are unable to survive. but
this year the recent succession of hot,
muggy days has enabled the aphids
to get good start toward that six
billion mark.
The aphid does not eat the leaves
or tender shoots. He sticks a pump
he has for that purpose into the leaves
and sucks out the plant juices. De-
prived of their proper amount of mois-
ture, the leayes at once curl and then
wither, while the young shoots be-
come wilted and eventually die. The
sap after passing through the aphid's
body is elected in those sticky drops
known as Honey Dew, which gives
the leaves such vanished appear
ance. The ants are very fond of this
honey, in fact the aphids have been
called the ants cows, because the
ants take this dew from them SO reg
ularly.
These aphids cannot kill trees in
one season, but they can appreciably
retard the growth and prevent the
maturity of fruit, and they can make
city's shade trees unsightly to look
at and unpleasant to walk beneath.
Delay is costly; to be informed should
be to act.
Since these insects are leaf suckers
and not leaf eaters, you must meet
them with spray attack, chemical
solution powerful enough to kill the
aphids the minute it strikes them.
One that will not harm the foliage