The practical point is, What remedies can be used to prevent the
ravages of the borers? The usual means of fighting the borers is, to
seek after them in the burrows, and try to kill them by digging them
out, or by reaching them with a wire. This seems to be the most
effectual method of dealing with them after they have once entered the
tree, but the orchardist should endeavor to prevent the insects from
entering the tree. For this purpose, various washes have been
recommended for applying to the tree, either for destroying the young
larvæ before they enter the bark, or for preventing the beetles
depositing their eggs. It has been found that trees which have been
coated with alkaline washes are avoided by beetles when laying their
eggs. Prof. Saunders recommends that soft soap be reduced to the
consistency of a thick paint, by the addition of a strong solution of
washing soda in water, and be applied to the bark of the tree,
especially about the base or collar, and also extended upward to the
crotches where the main branches have their origin. It should be
applied in the evening of a warm day, so that it may dry and form a
coating not easily dissolved by the rain. This affords a protection
against all three kinds of borers. It should be applied early in June,
before the beetles begin to lay their eggs, and again in July, so as
to keep the tree well protected.
Hon. T.S. Gold, of Connecticut, at a meeting of the Massachusetts
State Board of Agriculture, in regard to preventing the ravages of the
borer, said:
"A wash made of soap, tobacco water, and fresh cow manure mingled to
the consistency of cream, and put on early with an old broom, and
allowed to trickle down about the roots of the tree, has proved with
me a very excellent preventive of the ravages of the borer, and a
healthful wash for the trunk of the tree, much to be preferred to the
application of lime or whitewash, which I have often seen applied, but
which I am inclined to think is not as desirable an application as the
potash, or the soda, as this mixture of soft soap and manure."
J.B. Moore, of Concord, Mass., at the same meeting said, in regard to
the destruction of the borer:
"I have found, I think, that whale oil soap can be used successfully
for the destruction of that insect. It is a very simple thing; it will
not hurt the tree if you put it on its full strength. You can take
whale oil soap and dilute until it is about as thick as paint, and put
a coating of it on the tree where the holes are, and I will bet you
will never see a borer on that tree until the new crop comes. I feel
certain of it, because I have done it."
For borers, tarred paper 1 or 2 feet wide has been recommended to be
wrapped about the base of the trunk of the tree, the lower edge being
1 or 2 inches below the surface of the soil. This prevents the
two-striped borer from laying its eggs in the tree, but would not be
entirely effectual against the flat-headed borer, which attacks any
part of the trunk and the branches. By the general use of these means
for the prevention of the ravages of the borers, the damages done by
these insects could be brought within very narrow limits, and hundreds
of valuable apple trees saved.