Observations by members of the Kansas State Horticultural Society.
A. Chandler: I used a tree wash last year on apple trees for borers and
insects. I have been troubled in my timber (recently cleared) land with
borers, and if I had not taken this precaution they would have been
worse. It is known as the "Carnahan tree wash." Obtaining it ready
prepared in a can, I applied it in June with a whitewash brush to the
tree trunks and a portion of the limbs, and found it very beneficial.
While it will not _destroy_ the borer, I think it will prevent the borer
beetle from depositing eggs on the outside. From the healthy appearance
of the tree and the smooth appearance of the bark, I think it equals
anything I ever tried. It is also good for the prevention of other
insects, as tree-crickets, etc., and I think it will destroy the
curculio to some extent, and will prevent insects climbing the trees. My
trees never looked more thrifty. I cannot say it will prevent root-rot.
F. Holsinger: I would like to inquire whether your ground was thoroughly
cultivated?
A. Chandler: All the cultivation I could give would not prevent borers.
I applied the wash from the ground up, as far as I could reach. It costs
about two cents per tree from four to six years old, and I do not know
but what that might be reduced. This wash is obtained in gallon and
half-gallon cans. It should be applied about twice a year--spring and
fall--costing about four cents per year for each tree.
T. A. Stanley: Would not a strong lime wash do as well.
A. Chandler: No; I have no success with it. If the borer is in the tree,
you must dig him out with a knife. By examination you can tell whether
borers have deposited eggs or not. I do not say it will rid the tree of
borers if they have been allowed to deposit eggs and are left for years.
It makes the tree grow more vigorous. I do not know what is in this tree
wash, but it did no damage.
B. F. Smith: Chandler has tried this wash, and it has proven successful
with him. There are always new things being tried. If he has found
something good for trees, we should not object to it. If I receive a
package I will try it.
T. A. Stanley: My experience with borers will date back as far as fifty
years ago, when I was a boy, and the best thing to exterminate them with
was a jack-knife. A Boston gentleman visiting my father went into the
orchard and asked father if he had ever seen any borers. Father told him
he knew nothing about them (they were something new in those days).
Examining a tree, he took out his jack-knife and went to work near the
ground, and he soon showed why the tree was not doing well. With his
knife he dug the borer out and said the jack-knife was the best
exterminator he knew of. My experience is, if you will attend to it
about the 1st of June, when the beetles come out on the tree and deposit
their eggs behind loose scales of bark, and wash the tree with strong
lime wash, it will kill them. I prefer lime wash to any "nostrum" ever
introduced. When they once get into the tree no wash will take them out.
Horticulturists have been deceived enough by patent nostrums.
E. J. Holman: By instinct this insect never lays its eggs on the
surface. It lays as completely in the wood as the locust, which
punctures almost to the heart of a twig. A borer lives three years in
the wood; the third year it comes out in perfect form. It goes below in
the wood every winter, and the third spring passes the cocoon stage
there. They lay about fifty eggs, each placed separate and apart in the
wood. Rarely does an egg fail to hatch.
J. W. Robison: These beetles are very fierce. Put a half dozen into a
bottle and they will beat a bull fight, and will not stop until they
kill each other. She is a philosopher; she makes punctures sideways, so
the eggs can be laid in a row, and the bark close over them. It is only
a few days until they hatch; open the lip where deposited and you can
see them plainly. Without cutting the bark, thrust your knife under the
lip and you can hear the eggs crack. The larva works round and round
until of the size of a pea, and then usually starts upward until he gets
level with the surface of the ground, staying there until the next
season. He comes up early in the spring. My practice is to hoe around
the tree before the time for the round-headed borer to deposit eggs. I
keep the weeds clear, so that I can see where the borer went in. If he
has been in a year or two he is near the middle, and you had better let
him alone, as it will injure the tree to remove him. It is impossible to
get rid of these borers by a wash, because the eggs are covered. There
is no connection between the round-headed and flat-headed borers.
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.