worm for they often bite into it while eating apples. The small
worms crawl down in the blossom end of the young developing apple and
from there bore into the pulp and eventually reach the core of the
fruit. They stay in the apple about six weeks when they eat a hole out
to the surface and crawl down to the trunk where loose bark offers a
hiding place. Here they spin their cocoons and change to a small,
brown, plump pupa and after a few days the winged moth emerges. The moth
is very small and is not often found by one not acquainted with it. They
come out during late June and early July when they lay eggs for a second
colony of worms which again enter the fruit and destroy more of it.
These worms of the second brood are usually mature and leave the fruit
about the time apples are picked in the fall in central Missouri. They
escape and soon spin cocoons in which they pass the winter. Early in the
spring these change to pupae and later the moths come out. They appear
about the time apples bloom in the spring and lay the eggs for the first
worms which enter in great numbers at the blossom end.

This in short, is the life story of the pest through the year. Little
can be done to destroy the pest after it gets into the fruit, therefore
remedies must be applied to destroy the worm before it gets into the
fruit. All orchards should be sprayed with a poison in the spring
before the worms appear. Since most of them enter by way of the blossom
end, it is necessary that the poison be put into the blossom end. To do
this spray at once after the blossoms fall, repeat after two weeks and
spray again in July to kill the second brood of worms. The protection of
woodpeckers and sapsuckers will also help as they feed on the worms
under the bark.

[Illustration: Apple blossoms at about the right stage for receiving the
first and most important arsenical spray for the control of the apple
worm.]

OBSERVATIONS AND BREEDING WORK

Go into the orchard and examine for apples with masses of sawdust-like
material projecting from the sides or blossom end. By removing this
brown deposit which is the excrement of the worm, you will find a hole
leading into the apple. Cut open one of these and determine the course
of the tunnel. Where do you find the worm? Do all such apples contain
worms? Where have they gone? How does the feeding of the worms injure
the fruit? Do any of the wormy apples show rot? Are any of the windfalls
in the orchard wormy