442 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 6 



that are well protected in the wood. But this treatment is expensive 

 and only successful when the traps are carefully made. 



For the present at least then, the most effective method of control 

 is to destroy the breeding places of the beetle. In an old well-kept 

 plantation this is easily done, but on new plantations the problem is 

 a very serious one, for, without very heavy expense, it takes a long 

 time to burn or destroy all the old logs and stumps. Coconuts and 

 often cacao trees are usually planted within one or two years after 

 the bush land has been first cut over and while many of the larger 

 trees are still lying unburned on the ground. As some of the bush 

 trees are very hard they decay slowly and it is sometimes several 

 years before they can be cut up or burned easily. As long as any of 

 these decaying trees are in the field they are a constant menace to 

 the surrounding coconut trees. Plantations near wild bush land 

 have the dead trees there to contend with also. 



Piles of cacao pods are favorite breeding places for the beetles, 

 and when these are buried, as they often are in an effort to check the 

 spread of the cacao canker, they become even more dangerous for 

 the beetles readily find them and breed there in great numbers. The 

 pods should be burned soon after they are opened unless some method 

 of treating them can be found whereby they will not endanger the 

 cacao trees or serve as breeding places for the beetle. 



Realizing that it is impossible, because of lack of funds or labor, 

 for some of the planters to clean up the land the local government 

 has very wisely begun to aid them in this work. This is as it should 

 be. This insect is a common foe and it is just as much the function 

 of the government to protect its subjects from it as it is to protect 

 them from invasion by another nation. The problem is largely a 

 question of labor and will probably be satisfactorily solved only when 

 the government can put enough men on the infested plantations to 

 clean them as they should be. 



Careful searching and breeding experiments have failed to reveal 

 any insect parasite of this beetle in Samoa, nor is any such natural 

 enemy known to occur in other countries. It is quite possible, how- 

 ever, that a careful search in places where the beetle has long been 

 established may reveal some important enemies. Dr. Friederichs, 

 zoologist and plant pathologist for Samoa, has been working for 

 some months with a fungus disease that is found attacking a very 

 few of the larvae on some of the plantations. Under laboratory con- 

 ditions this can be made to do very good work but so far it has spread 

 too slowly in the field to do very much good. It is possible that fur- 

 ther experiments may teach us how to make this a valuable ally 

 in our fight against this important pest. 



