Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1875 — The Canker-Worm. [ARTICLE]

The Canker-Worm.

[From the Forthcoming Report of the Mtchi<mn State Board of Agricultnre.] . The wingless female moth and the trim male, with his ample wings, both gray or ash. color, the female being a little the darker, come forth from the ground early in the spring: I have often seen the males during warm winter days. Dr. Harris states that these insects during open winters come forth from October to March, but usually commence aboEt the middle of March and continue to issue from their earthen retreats for about three weeks. The female crawls up the trunks of the apple trees and lavs her cluster of eggs, often to tlie number of 100. If the female fails for any reason to gain access to the tree she fastens these egg clusters to any convenient object. I i have often seen them in Cambridge, Mass., I fastened to the pickets or boards offences, i After egg-laying these insects soon die. Just as the leaves begin to burst forth the larva? begin to come forth. The larvae vary very much in color. At first they are very dark, with faint yellowish stripes. When full-groWn they are striped with ash color, black and yellow, and areabout one inch in length. These larvae belong to the loopers, or measuring worms, both names referring to their peculiar method of locomotion. They do not have the usual number •of legs for caterpillars (sixteen), but must be content with only ten. Hence their looping gait. They are also called dropworms, because of the habit of swinging from the tree by a thread when disturbed, or when they desire to go to the ground to pupate. As they are often seen thus suspended it lias been supposed that they frequently swing just for the pleasure of the thing. It may be that some disturbing wind or bird induced this strange maneuver. About the middle of June the larvae are full fed, the tree fully denuded of its foliage, and that, too, at the worst possible time, the growing season, when The “ worms” make for the ground, some creeping down the trunk, others dropping down by a silken thread spun for the pur-" pose. Upon reaching the ground they burrow to the deptli of four or live inches and, in an earthen cocoon; change to pupa?. The chrysalis is of a light brown color, and smaller for male than for female. This destructive insect is not content to injure the apple-tree alone, but is equally ready to attack the elm, and not infrequently attacks cherry, plum and other fruit and forest trees. . , As prevention is better than cnrejwe ought, ofz-cotirse, whenever possible, to keep injurious insects from even g.-tining a foothold; and the wingless condition of this female moth permits us to accomplish this, as she must ascend the tree in order to work injury. Any substance which prevents this will prevent the defoliation. The old method so long practiced in New England is to closely surround the tree with paper bands, say eight inches wide, and besmear the bands with tar or printer’s ink. This gives the trees a forbidding appearance and necessitates renewed application of tlie adhesive substance so frequently as to be sure that we entrap the moth as she attempts to pass up the tree. Dr. Le Baron suggests a neater and, as he says, an effectual remedy. He would place an inch rope closely around the tree, letting it lap a little so as to be sure to entirely surround the tree. Then tack the rope to the tree at each end. Then take a strip of tin, say five inches widq, place it around over the rope, so fhatlhe rope shall be just in the middle of the tin; lap this a little and tack to the rope. It is said that tlie female moths coming up to the rope, and being unable to crawl through under the tin, will crawl around and get on to the tin, but that they-will never get from the tin to the tree again. Upon reaching the top of the tin they pass round and round, not knowing that they can pass down and thus gain their desired end. Like turkeys entrapped in a pen, whose only exit is through a hole beneath the earth’s level, they are balked through sheer stupidity. In this case the moths will doubtless lay esgs around and below the tins. These can be destroyed by using kerosene oil. This,, turned upon the eggs, destroys them. Eggs laid in close proximity to the tree, or wherever seen, can be destroyed in the same way. . > If the moths once gain access to the tree, and the larvae commence their work of despoliation, we can take advantage of their dropping propensity and destroy them. Place a little straw under the tree, not sufficient to injure it when burned. Then jar the tree, and as the larvae swing down by their threads bring them upon straw by sweeping the threads with a pole, then set fire to the straw, and we are rid of the pests. The only tr ouble will be to be sure to make them drop. To be complete this will need cautious pains. During the past year syringing the trees with a solution of Paris green was tried with marked success in Illinois, and is highly recommended by those who tried it. Though the neighbors of people with affected orchards may take satisfaction in the prospect of a speedy leave-taking of this terrible scourge, still those who have orchards attacked will find that persistent effort in the line marked out above will be .the price of their orchards, as two or three years at most will utterly ruin the trees. ’But this price is not very exorbitant, as the labor is not very great, does not last very long, and is most effectual when applied in the least busy season of all the year.— A. J. Cook, Professor in Agricultural College.

A young Trojan went up into Washington County the other day to buy a horse. He found one that suited him and sent him home on trial. After a thorough examination he was found to be unsound, and the young man’s father sent an older son with a telegram to the younger, who remained up north, which read: “Don’t buy the horse; he is fast, but a little unsteady.” The older son, who is rather “tight” in money matters, reading the dispatch at the office hurriedly, found that it contained over ten words, and, intending to avoid the extra tariff, thoughtlessly struck out the first woref* The dispatch was sent, the horse was bought, and the close-fisted Troy man's brother has an bargain that he would like to get rid of for $2-50. — Y.) Republican. . The Scientific American announces that an insect hostile to housewives and slumber has been purged of his pestilential qualities by a simple scientific method, and rendered a delightful and indispensable article of the dressing-table. By soaking nice fat bedbugs in a saturated solution of nitrate of potash and water a perfume, delicate, delicious, penetrating, and like nothing else in the wide world, is obtained. What an impetus this will give to the slaughter of insects of this persuasion. Nitrate of potash is cheap and bedbugs are plentiful. The underpaid clerk on five dollars a week, living at a dingy,. » third-class boarding-house, has in this announcement the wherewithal to accumulate a competency.— Chicago Tribune.