186 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



5-6 EDVMRD V!l., A. 1906 



ning of July in 1896 the shrilling of the males among the aspen poplars and willows 

 on the mountain side above the town was almost deafening. The species occurs right 

 across the mountains, as I have specimens from Banff, and last year Mr. Dalton 

 Tipping sent me a specimen which he had taken at Blackfalds, in Alberta. 



Up to the present season no injury to cultivated trees had been complained of in 

 British Columbia, but on July 3 last, Mr. E. Hulme, of Rock Creek, in the Boundary 

 District, B.C., sent me samples of apple branches which had been punctured by the 

 egg-laying females. As in the case of the other species of the genus, C. putnami lays 

 its eggs in deep slits made into the wood of various trees; but the young do not feed 

 on the wood or foliage of the trees where the eggs pass the wdnter; on emerging, they 

 fall to tlie ground and burrow into the earth, where they attack the roots. Mr. Hulme 

 stated that his young apple trees had been planted four years, and he had not previ- 

 ously noticed any injury; but this year some of the branches had been cut in four 

 or five places. 



It is hoped that this may be only an accidental injury to apple trees ; but British 

 Columbia is now becoming such an important fruit producing country and such large 

 areas are yearly being cleared and planted to orchards, that any insect which is likely 

 to develop into an enemy ot the fruit grower is worthy of attention. 



The Sleepy Weevil (Otiorhynchus ovatus, L.). — In my last report reference was 

 made to the attacks of the larvae of this weevil on the roots of strawberries. The in- 

 sect occurs right across the continent and is frequently sent to the Division for infor- 

 mation concerning its habits; but tliis is usually on account of the frequency with 

 which it is found crawling about inside houses. Complaints of injury to vegetation 

 are seldom made; but occasionally the damage done by the larvae is considerable. Mr. 

 E. McTaggart, of Hatzic, B.C., wrote as follows last spring: — 'May 3. — I am sending 

 a box containing a number of small white grubs. This insect has been working for 

 the past three or four years in our ftrawberries, feeding on the small white root feed- 

 ers. They bid fair to put us out of the strawberry business, unless we can find some 

 way to control them. This will be a serious loss ; for strawberries are our most impor- 

 tant crop.' 



Specimens sent from British Columbia previously, showed that the larvae of the 

 Sleepy Weevil have also the habit of boring cavities into the caudex or short under-, 

 ground stem of old strawberry plants, in the same way as, and frequently in company 

 with, the larger larvae of the Black Vine Weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatus, Eab.). Mr. 

 McTaggart was advised to adopt the ' one-crop method '' of growing his strawberries, 

 by which finer berries are produced and the beetles are prevented from increasing. I 

 find also that large numbers of the mature beetles may be trapped by putting shelters, 

 such as small flower-pots with a little hay in them, inverted and raised from the ground 

 on short pegs, about the beds. The beetles are largely nocturnal in habit and will 

 make use of these shelters for hiding in by day. They can be easily clearedout by 

 taking each pot off the peg and shaking the hay over a pan or pail with a little water 

 and coal oil in it. They are remarkably sluggish insects and make no effort to crawl 

 away by day. 



Father Burke sent specimens from Alberton, Prince Edward Island, which he had 

 found eating cavities into low growing apples; many fruits trailing on the ground 

 were damaged. He had also found the beetles in the blooms of dahlias and eating*, the 

 leaves of the wild buckwheat. 



Mrs. Thomas Sharpe, writing from the Experimental Farm at Agassiz, B.C., on 

 August 9, sent specimens of the Black Vine Weevil which had been found very plenti- 

 fully on the raspberry bushes, and also several Sleepy Weevils which she said ' we 

 find all over the house. Do we carry them in on our clothes from the garden or are 

 they some destructive house insect ? We are quite alarmed at the numbers of them 

 ■which we find about the floors.' 



It is probable that some of these may have been carried into the house from the 

 garden; but these insects have a well marked penchant for crawling into houses and 



