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Show PEACH-TREE BORER MUST BE DUG OUT Wherever the peach is grown in the United States east of the Rocky mountains moun-tains It Is subject to the attack of this native American borer, the larva of a beautiful steel-blue clear-wing moth. Trees af all ages from nursery stock to the last relics of abandoned orchards or-chards are subject to attack; young trees are often girdled and killed outright, out-right, while older trees are so weakened weak-ened that they are unable to produce good crops of fruit The insect always passes the winter In the larval state. Throughout Its range the great majority of the wintering win-tering larvae are less than one-half grown, although a very few may be nearly mature. Most of the larger larvae hibernate in their burrows beneath be-neath the bnrk, but as a rule, the smaller ones, those less than one-half grown, pass the winter on the bark curled up under a thin silken covering or .hibernaculum which protects them from the surrounding mass of gum. It has been shown by dissection of tlie moths that each female is capable of laying from 200 to 600 eggs. They hatch in nine or ten days and the I young larvae soon start their burrows in the soft bark. The best results In the control of the peach-tree borer In commercial orchards or-chards are, as a rule, obtained by digging dig-ging out the borers with a knife or some similar Instrument, after which the trunk is treated with some good protective wash and the earth mounded up around the tree to a height of six to eight inches. Some successful growers grow-ers rely entirely on the digging-out and mounding methods and omit the wash. Where the pest is at all troublesome the trees should be gone over carefully care-fully twice a year; once as late as convenient in the fail and again the first part of June. In digging out the borers the earth is first removed from around the base of the tree to a depth of four or five inches when the larger burrows will be indicated ty conspicuous conspic-uous masses of gum. By scraping the bark with a knife or brush most of the smaller ones can be easily located. lo-cated. Particularly in the fall many of the borers are on the surface of the bark, covered merely by a mass of gum, where they are easily found and destroyed. To get at the larger borers in their burrows in the bark and sapwood considerable cutting may be necessary, but If it is done carefully care-fully and mostly in the direction of the grain of the wood, the wound soon heals and little or no toyjury is done to the tree. O. K. Jones, Associate Professor, Entomology, C. A. C. |