112 



borers with a sharp knife or killing them by a wire thrust into their borings. 

 The fresh tunnels discovered should be followed with the least cutting 

 possible, and the borer at the end destroyed. The injury caused by the 

 borers will eventually be more serious than the cutting necessary to remove 

 them. The scars resulting from old tunnels should be smoothed off, and 

 these where necessary, as well as the fresh tunnels, disinfected and filled 

 with grafting wax or putty. 



The Pine Bark Aphis, Chermes pinicorticis , is a most common enemy 

 of cultivated white pines. It appears as flocculent white masses upon 

 the green bark of the trunk and branches. Like the Spruce Gall Aphides 

 it is not of any importance in the Province as a forest insect, but its eflfect 

 upon the smaller isolated pines growing under unthrifty conditions is most 

 marked. 



The living plant lice are found upon the more tender parts of the 

 bark sucking up the sap through their slender beaks. They secrete an 

 immense amount of woolly wax which covers them and gives the char- 

 acteristic appearance to infested trees, as though patches of fine wool 

 had been gummed on the bark. Whenever this insect becomes very 

 abundant, serious injury may be expected to the infested trees. 



Control Measures. — Pines growing under suitable conditions are 

 less likely to be seriously affected. It is, therefore, important to give 

 the trees the best possible condition for growth, and one of the most im- 

 portant is abundance of water in dry periods. The insects may be killed 

 by thoroughly spraying the infested portions of the trees with strong 

 kerosene emulsion or fish oil soap late in April or during May. A second 

 spraying may be given if needed. The spray will be more effective if 

 the insects have been previously removed in part by a strong spray of 

 water or by means of a stiff brush wet in very strong soap suds. 



The White Pine Weevil, Pissodes strobi, is frequently injurious 

 to young trees, destroying the terminal shoots, and in this way more or 

 less distorting the shape of the trees. It is most commonly found attacking 

 pine in Quebec, but occurs also in spruce. 



The adult is a brown snout-beetle about one-fourth of an inch long, 

 with two whitish spots on the back behind the middle. The females place 

 the eggs under the bark, usually on the terminal shoots of young pines, 

 in May and June. The whitish, footless grubs eat their way into the wood 

 towards or to the pith. When the grubs are very numerous the terminal 

 shoot is thoroughly riddled and dies towards midsummer. The adult 

 beetles eat their way from the shoots from the end of July onwards to the 

 middle of September. 



