T. A. Stanley: It requires three years for the borer to mature and come out. In my experience, the borer selects a spot where loose bark is on the tree, and goes in where it is tender. It lays eggs in even rows. These eggs stay under the bark but a short time when they hatch and the little worm eats into the tender bark, and goes through it, to live and grow there; when large enough they go into the body of the tree. They stay there for three years. Scrape off the bark and put whitewash on the eggs and it will destroy them.
President Wellhouse: By taking a knife, cutting into the tree, and running a hooked wire in, you can pull them out. Each female beetle deposits fifty or sixty eggs, and we find it better and less expensive to hunt the borers early in the spring. By carefully examining the bottom of the tree for six or eight inches above the ground you will see a little brown spot. He came to the bark the fall previous, and sets about two inches back in his cavity. If you wait till May, he is out and gone; he is easier taken out in spring than later. By killing the insect you prevent the egg laying. We always have our men hunt for the insects that are about to come out. It is easy to find the little brown spot about the size of your finger end, and you can kill them by pouring a few drops of coal-oil from a machine can into the cavity.
Dr. J. Stayman: Can we prevent the borer from entering the tree? I have practiced banking up my trees as steep as I can, about a foot high; less may do. The beetle will not deposit eggs where the tree is banked up. I have practiced this for thirty years, and have never seen a borer in my trees since I began it. Like these gentlemen, I at first cut out the borers. We can prevent them by banking up early in the spring. By instinct, it knows the bank will wash down. If it deposits its eggs, how easy to scrape away the mound. I never saw a flathead borer on a tree that was banked. They always work on the south side, where the sun shines on the tree.
BUD MOTH.
This insect is often very destructive, attacking the blossom and leaf-buds, and in a few mouthfuls destroying that which must make the leaves and fruit, "nipping in the bud" the entire crop of fruit and debilitating the tree. This worm works in early spring, as soon as the buds begin to open; it delights in the prominent terminal buds and its work stops all new growth, causes many leaves to turn brown, and thus brings to the notice of the orchardist its bad work. The moth measures about three-quarters of an inch across its wings, and is mainly a gray color, the middle of the fore wings being lighter, or creamy. This insect first appears on the buds as a small, dark brown worm, about one-fourth of an inch long, with shining black head and shoulders. It imbeds itself in the center of the bud, tying the leaves together with its web. It is an irregular worker, and leaves the bud in a ragged, brown, dilapidated condition.
Its work is most destructive in the nursery, destroying terminal shoots, which sadly interferes with the growth and symmetry of the young tree. Sometimes it burrows from the bud into the pith of the twig for several inches, killing the shoot to the tip. The worm finally settles upon a leaf, cutting the leaf stalk partly off, so that the leaf withers; it then rolls this soft, wilted leaf into a tube around its body, fastening it with webs and lining it for a nest. From this tube nest it comes forth only at night to feed, and when disturbed it hastens into it out of sight. In feeding, it draws leaves towards its home by silken threads, thus forming a bunch of partly eaten leaves, which turn brown, making the nest conspicuous.
After attaining its growth it lies as a pupa in its silk-lined tube about ten days, when it emerges an adult moth, and in three or four days begins to lay its eggs. These moths appear from about June 1 and remain to July 5 or July 10. They are night flyers, and do no damage in the winged state. As the worms are leaf-eaters, spraying with London purple or Paris green, as for canker-worms, must kill many. Whenever their nests are seen they should, if possible, be gathered and burned, and in a badly infested orchard it will pay to rake and burn all the leaves under the trees.