Show 1111 COUNTY AGENTS COI CO I 1 UHN by MORGAN P mckay alfalfa faX M bevil have enemies in par sent to state 0 the alfalfa weevil parasite Is a big help in controlling weevil not by saving the immediate crop but by br making cultural control possible when the weevil threatened de st ruction of the alfalfa industry a few years after it was discovered around salt lake city in 1905 the U S department of agriculture sent men to europe to see how bow the wee vil was controlled there the in vesti Nesti gators concluded that other in sect enemies preyed on the weevil to such an extent in europe that weevil dama damage e was mas not a serious problem TA ten of these foreign insect parasites of were introduced in utah between 1911 and the outbreak ol 01 the world war of two tao surviving species only one Is of importance this parasite is a tiny blace wasp like insect about one fourth of an inch long it lays an egg in the body of the weevil at the time when this vahrm Is eating the alfalfa the egg hatches into a worm A orm which eats the internal portions of the body of the weevil the weevil Is not killed at once but dies after it has com ed its feeding and spun its cocoon the parasite then emerges from the dead body of the weevil and makes i it ceccon of its own inside the web ilk like e weevil cocoon its cocoon is dark brown oval shaped about three eights of an inch long with a white band around its center it may be found on the ground in hay fields or wherever the weevil Is abundant any time from late spring to the follow ing spring when it changes into tho thi wasp like form and starts laying its eggs in the larva of the weevil the parasites kill one hundred per cent of the early hatched weevils but as the season advances an in crea creasing g number of the weevil es cape it is these later hatched wee vils which unless destroyed by prop rop aly riy timed first cutting mature and lay eggs the following spring which hatch into worms that damage the crop before the parasite kills them the parasite has an important place in bevil control but I 1 it t does not give complete control it must be supplemented by early cutting of first and second crops of alfalfa frank beckwith notary public |