26 Second Report on Economic Zoology. 



and the fumes as well as the actual substance are poisonous to man 

 and animals. Seed at any time may be treated in this manner. 

 Diseased seed should never be sown ; they may be fed to stock 

 witliout doing any harm to the latter. If the use of the bisulphide 

 of carbon is objected to owing to the inflammable nature of the 

 liquid and its poisonous fumes, the only other way is to hold the 

 seed over until the second year. The vitality of tlie pea is not 

 harmed, and by that time all weevils will have hatched out and died. 

 Seed peas may also be treated in the following way : put them in 

 an air-tight box and then pour half a pound of chloroform on to a rag- 

 for every twenty-five bushels of peas and pusli the rag down into the 

 peas, close up the box and leave for a week. The chloroform kills 

 all the insects and does not harm the seed or affect the flavour in 

 any way. 



A Remedy for the Pea Weevil. 



{Sitones lincatus, L.) 



Dr. A. H. T. de Montmorency, of Carrickmines, co. Dublin,, 

 sends the following useful note regarding the Pea Weevil and the 

 prevention of its damage : — 



" Last spring I was worried with my peas being eaten away, and 

 I could not get any information in seed shops or elsewhere as to the 

 circular pieces eaten out of the young shoots when coming up. I 

 went over with tulips to the Temple Garden Flower Show, and 

 remaining in London for a while, I went down to the Natural 

 History Museum, and on looking at one glass case, ' Pests of the 

 Garden,' I saw about the Pea Weevil, and at once saw I had the 

 enemy that had compelled me to sow the rows a third time before I 

 left home. When I returned home I found my third sowing also 

 eaten away except one row. Here is the point. This row I had 

 covered with fine earth I was removing from a house I grow potatoes 

 and tomatoes in. They were in splendid order, and a fine row con- 

 sequently. Why not put in the case as a remedy — cover with fine 

 earth. The insects have not the hiding-places as they had in other 

 places, as my soil was all very coarse and lumpy owing to the wet 

 season. It was so marked that I thought it well to brins it under 

 yom- notice." 



