The Orchardist Who Told the State Its Moth Spraying Was Useless

Much has been said lately in the papers about the codlin moth, and as we have just arrived at the end of the season it is a good time to sum up the results of our past efforts to fight this worst of all fruit pests—I might safely put it stronger and say worse than all other fruit pests—and see if we cannot devise some more effective method in future. In recording my observations regarding the habits of this insect and my criticisms regarding the methods recommended for his extinction by our State Horticultural Society and other wise men, I am aware that, not being a scientific observer, or even a college professor, the wiseacres will be after me with their little clubs; but if my efforts will cause others to observe the habits of this pest more closely I shall be amply repaid and can stand the clubbing—if I don't club back.

The life history of this insect, it seems to me, needs rewriting badly. In my search after light on this subject I find the various authorities agree on it with a unanimity that, to say the least, is striking, and leads one to suspect that the later authorities have simply copied from the older ones. Some observer away back in the cold New England climate years ago wrote out his life history about as follows: "This insect appears in the spring during the fruit bloom, the female moth laying her eggs in the calyx of the young apple just as it is forming, the second brood from the eggs so laid appearing as matured moths from five to six weeks later, while in some localities there is a later brood appearing in July." This, with slight variation, is about the story told by all the authorities I have consulted.

Now, while this may have been all right for the time when and the place where written, it will not apply locally to the Yakima valley nor yet to many other places that I can mention.

Mr. Codlin Moth is a fellow of great adaptability and conforms in his habits to the exigencies of the climate in which he finds himself. And to combat him successfully the locality and local climate must be taken into consideration. Instructions from our fruit inspectors in this state require the orchardist to spray with Paris green solution when fruit bloom is falling, again two weeks later, and again about July 1st.

Allow me to say at least such spraying is almost, if not quite, useless, for the following reasons:

1st. The moth does not appear here (at least it has not for the two seasons last past) as early as fruit bloom nor yet for several weeks later.

2nd. There is no such thing in this locality as a succession of broods at stated intervals in the sense in which the term is used by the authorities, and the spraying July 1st, if not supplemented by later sprayings and other means, might as well be left in the spraying tanks as put upon the trees.

I have made as close observations of the work of this insect as the time and means at my disposal would allow, for the reason that I have had in contemplation the planting of a commercial orchard. During the summer just past I have had under close observation three orchards, my own and two others close by. One of these orchards was thoroughly and conscientiously sprayed as per formula furnished by the fruit inspector; the other two were not sprayed for the moth. October 1st I was willing to give a chromo to any man who, by an examination of the three orchards, could tell by the condition of the fruit which had and which had not been sprayed. The fruit in all alike were badly infested, and that is true of many other orchards in this vicinity that were sprayed.

My observations lead me to the following conclusions: In the vicinity of North Yakima there is but one brood of the codlin moth, and that is a continuous one from about June 15th to Nov. 1. What I mean by that is that there is no day between about the dates named that the insect cannot be found in a badly infested orchard, in all stages from the egg to the matured moth. By close daily inspection in a badly infested orchard from the time of fruit bloom forward I found the first tiny worm, apparently just hatched and beginning to work his way into the apple, on the 16th day of June, and on Nov. 2 I found worms at work on apples in my orchard less than 1-16th of an inch long and probably not more than two or three days old at most.

Now, if some of our efficient experiment station workers would make observations in the field in various sections of the state they might write a new "Life History" of his "mothship" and possibly suggest some more practical and effective method of combatting him, and thereby bestow on the orchardists of the state an inestimable benefit. Will not Prof. Balmer come to our aid? Unless we can find and employ more effective means of combatting this pest, or nature comes to our aid, apple and pear growing as a profitable industry is doomed in this vicinity. We can only hope, I think, to hold him in check, for if he has ever been eradicated from a locality once infested I have yet to hear of it. Although I have seen it gravely stated in the press that "Inspector Brown was on the trail of the codlin moth and proposed to exterminate him from King county" (I suppose by periodically or spasmodically dumping a few boxes of wormy fruit in the bay). I might give some experience in combatting this pest elsewhere, and my ideas, for what they are worth, of how better to combat him here, but fearing that the length of this article, if nothing else, will consign it to the waste basket, I forbear.

North Yakima, Nov. 8, 1898.