FARM, FIELD, AND DAIRY.

Northern Advocate, 13 January 1912, Page 3

FARM, FIELD, AND DAIRY.

ELECTROCUTING CODLIN MOTHS

According to the "National Irrigation Journal," published in Chicago, electricity as an agency to destroy the codlin moth is the latest innovation of modern apple orcharding in the Spokane Valley, where W. M. Frost, inventor of the device, and T. C. Lawrence, a practical grower of Spokane, made what is declared to be the first demonstration of its kind in the world on the evening of August 18th. The test was made in a six-year-old orchard at Opportunity, where a score of second-brood moths and hundreds of green aphis were killed in a few minutes. The apparatus consists of a storage battery to charge incandescent light globes of six candle power, which are netted with fine steel wire3 £ coated with copper and tin, alternately. Attracted by the bright light ir the tree, to which the globe is strung by a covered wire, the moth flies against the net-work, completes the electric circuit, and is instantly killed, the body dropping into a receptacle beneath the globe. Mr Frost thinks that one battery to an acre of trees will keep the moths under control, thus eliminating spraying, and saving many dollars for equipment and fluid. If electric light wires are extended to the orchard tracts, as they are in the Spokane Valley, the expense of batteries may be saved by making direct connection and using the commercial current. The cost of covering the globes with wire nets is a small item, any electrician can do the work. Growers in various parts of Eastern Washington are preparing to equip their orchards with the new pest destroyers the coming season.