5 
The fact of the larvee living concealed within the buds places the insect, 
in its earliest stages, beyond the reach of the arsenicals, and the further 
fact that the adult derives its chief sustenance from the pollen within 
the buds and does not feed upon the leaves, limits the effectiveness of 
any direct poison. 
Covering the beds.—Owing to the difficulty of contending against the 
insect when once it has invaded a bed of strawberries it is necessary to 
have recourse to preventive measures. 
A nearly perfect preventive consists in covering the beds. This 
covering, which may be of muslin or some similar light material, if 
properly applied will not only exclude the weevil and other noxious 
insects, but will secure immunity from frost and is moreover a positive 
benefit to the berries, which ripen a week or ten days earlier and are 
superior also in quality and size. Whatever covering is employed should 
be put in place over the beds at least a week before the appearance of 
the first blossoms and may be safely removed as soon as the first berries 
are ready for market. Pistillate plants or such as produce no pollen 
require no such protection. 
Cultivating pistillate varieties.—It is obviously unsafe, in districts 
where the weevil is known to be abundant, to trust entirely to staminate 
varieties of berries. It is advisable, therefore, to grow chiefly pistillate 
varieties and just as few staminates as are necessary for the purpose of 
fertilization. The insects when they become abundant will mass them- 
selves upon the staminate plants, where they may be destroyed by 
spraying and similar measures. For the complete success of this method 
of culture it is essential that the nonfertilizing plants should be perfect 
pistillates and bear no pollen. 
Trap crops.—In the same manner that the rows of staminates used 
for fertilization constitute a protection for the other rows, certain vari- 
eties. particularly such as bloom early, may be used to protect later- 
blooming plants. One of the best for this purpose is the “‘ Charles 
Downing,”’ as it blooms early and its blossoms are exposed to the sun. 
By laying out beds with © Downings”’ or other early staminates on the 
sides that experience has shown to be most susceptible to attack, e. g., 
in protected sunny spots or near woodland in which the beetles might 
have hibernated, the insects will be attracted from the other portions 
of the bed and can be the more readily controlled by spraying with the 
arsenites. 
The red-bud, which blooms several days earlier than the strawberry, 
attracts the earliest arrivals and might also serve as a trap. From this 
tree the insects can be jarred upon sheets saturated with kerosene and 
destroyed together with the buds containing the insect’s eggs. 
As a lure for the new brood the wild bergamot is of value. When 
the beetles gather upon this plant they may be killed by spraying the 
flowers or may be captured and destroyed by thousands, thus lessening 
the chances of infestation for the ensuing year. For their capture large 
pans of water covered with a thin scum of kerosene will be found 
useful. 
Both red-bud and wild bergamot are ornamental plants. 
Clean cullture.—It is reasonable to suppose that some good can 
be accomplished by clean culture such as would result from the 
clearing away of wild or volunteer plants, and the “burning over” 
