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Show INJURIOUS LITTLE WEEVIL HARD TO EXTERMINATE These Pests, Which Hibernate in Woodlands, Under Leaves and Rubbish of AH Kinds, Appear Very Early and Attack First Buds of Plants- variety to serve as pollenlzers and to attract the insects. This method has been actually adopted in some of the southern states with good effect. The objection Is made that there is no known pistillate variety which does well in many of the northern states and fulfills the requirements as to time of ripening, shipping quality, etc That there is no fruit so erratic in it3 action in different localities as the strawberry Is well known, and there is no one variety which any grower is willing to recommend for all localities. locali-ties. - The method of a few growers is to plant very profusely flowering varieties vari-eties of plants with the idea of getting get-ting enough buds to feed tie beetles and to make a crop as well. But a much better plan would he to plant some very early profusely flowering variety on rows along the edges to serve as an attraction for the beetles and keep them from the main crop. This would mean, of course, planting (By J. TIIOS. MACKENZIE.) These pests have been increasingly abundant in some parts of the country coun-try during the past few years and every ev-ery effort possible should be made to control and destroy them. These beetles hibernate in rubbish under leaves and any shelter they can find, and become active early in March and April. The eggs are laid as soon as the beetles can find buds in suitable condition and the earliest of these are on the cultivated strawberry. straw-berry. The females continue feeding and laying eggs until after the middle of June, attacking in succession after the strawberry, dewberry, wild strawberry straw-berry and blackberry. Development from egg to adult requires re-quires about one month. These feed but little and disappear into hibernating hiber-nating quarters shortly afterward. The actual damage done by these insects is not really measured by the percentage of buds destroyed, because these are the earliest, that would ordinarily or-dinarily have been the finest berries and brought the highest price. The injury cause is due to the feeding feed-ing habit of the larva which requires pollen for its development. The female beetle, therefore, lays its rather large, white, glistening egg into a well developed bud of a staminate variety and, in order to prevent further fur-ther development, punctures the flower flow-er stalk just below it. In U day or two the bud wilts, the stalk breaks at the point of puncture, and usually the bud drops to the ground, although it may hang on for some days by a few threads of tissue. This dropping to the ground favors the development of the larva which, exposed to the hot sun, might otherwise dry up, or the bud itself might become too hard and unfit for food. There is no period in the life of this insect when it can be satisfactorily reached by insecticides. The adult feeds, little, usually on pollen or by eating holes into the well developed blossom buds. Whether the insect devours the tissue when it cuts through the flower stalks is not known. The larva feeds in shelter continuously and is entirely beyond our reach. As the larva feeds only on pollen, pistillate plants which bear none are free from attack and the obvious recommendation rec-ommendation is to plant pistillate varieties vari-eties with every third or fourth row of some profusely flowering staminate Work of Strawberry Weevil A, spray with punctured buds; B, wilting wilt-ing buds; C, egg; D, larva; F, pupa; all three enlarged; G, flower with feeding punctures. for the beetles only, and the trap low might afterward be cut close, the foliage, etc., carefully raked up and burnt and then the ground sprayed with a miscible oil or kerosene emulsion emul-sion 1 to 10 to .soak the cut buds and kill the contained larvae. Covering the rows with cotton, muslin mus-lin or similar material -has been recommended rec-ommended and, on a small scale, has been found successful. It not only keeps off the bettles but promotes earliness and extra fine fruit. How it would work on a commercial scale has not yet been determined. |