124 Journal New York Entomological Society. tVoi. xxi. 



I refer to the work of the hickory bark borer, Scolytus qnadri- 

 spinosiis Say, with which you are all familiar. It takes two years as 

 a rule for the work of this beetle to cause the complete death of a 

 mature tree, but when a tree is fairly infested there seems little hope 

 for it. The economic bureaus have been considering the matter for 

 some time but the remedy suggested, so far as I have learned, is for a 

 rather idealistic treatment that at present cannot avail, at least in my 

 locality. As you are doubtless aware the larvae of qnadrispinosns 

 pass the winter in their galleries beneath the bark and do not hatch 

 out till the last of June. At the time of their emergence the beetles 

 bore their way out to the surface, producing the shot-hole effect so 

 characteristic of their work. At this time, however, the damage is 

 done, the girdling effect of the larvae in working across the bast fibers 

 that carry the sap is finished and the portion of the tree above the 

 infestation is in a dying condition. The remedy advocated by the 

 bureaus, and a natural one, is the cutting down and burning of infested 

 trees during the winter and spring, thus exterminating the larval 

 supply. Excellent, if it were nearer the millennium such suggestions 

 might be all right, and if it were the inception of an introduced species 

 such a course would be the only thing to consider. But we have to do 

 with an indigenous species, a very general and widespread infesta- 

 tion, and there are no laws compelling people to cut their trees down, 

 were they expert enough to do so at a proper time. At the first when 

 a tree is chosen by the female beetles as being in a proper state for 

 ovipositing, it takes an expert indeed to know that soon there will be 

 thousands of young larvae working under the bark and that ultimately, 

 in the coming June or earlier, the tree will show signs of impending 

 doom. Before the emergence holes are seen there is no clue to guide 

 the uninitiated, and after the beetles have gone out there is no use in 

 felling the tree. Even did a confiding public stand ready to follow 

 every direction, they could hardly tell what trees to destroy. To the 

 average person who must judge from the foliage appearance of his 

 trees which ones he must cut down, the period of efficiency, when the 

 larvae could be destroyed, is very brief. 



A healthy tree in August has its bark infested with numerous tgg 

 cells. No indication is evidenced in the foliage up to the time the 

 leaves fall, and the buds seem healthy during the winter. Hickories 

 are late in starting and it is well in May before the trouble is mani- 



