59 



The eggs are laid on the pods, and the young grubs, boring through 

 the pod, penetrate the peas and complete their life-history therein. Some 

 mature and escape by threshing time, but most remain within the grains all 

 winter and will be in the seed when it is sown in the springtime. The only 

 method of control is to destroy the weevils in the peas before planting 

 time, and preferably as soon after gathering in the fall as is possible. If all 

 peas in a district were treated properly the weevil would soon do little 

 damage, for it breeds only, so far as is known, in cultivated peas. The 

 weevils may be killed easily by fumigating the peas with carbon bi- 

 sulphide, or by treating them with coal-oil, or by holding them over in 

 tightly closed sacks for a season. 



Fumigating with Carbon bi-sulphide. — Carbon bi-sulphide is a colour- 

 less, ill-smelling, inflammable fluid which evaporates rapidly when exposed 

 to the air. It can be purchased from druggists at about 40 cents a pint. 

 For fumigating the peas a clean coal-oil barrel is convenient. Fill the 

 barrel with peas, about five bushels, place three or four ounces of the liquid 

 in a shallow dish on the top and cover the barrel tightly. The fumes will 

 sink through the peas and kill all the grubs contained without injuring the 

 grains for any purpose. The cover must be air-tight. Fine sacking, covered 

 with boards weighted with a stone, will answer. This should be left 48 

 hours. No fire of any kind should be brought near, as the fumes are very 

 inflammable. When a large crop is to be treated a special fumigating- 

 house is needed. The peas should be gathered on the green side and 

 threshed and treated as soon as possible, otherwise many weevils will 

 escape. Grubs of all stages are found in the peas at threshing time, there- 

 fore, the sooner the treatment is applied the less the injury will be. 



Treating with Coal Oil. — About half a gallon of coal oil is poured over 

 a barrel, 5 bushels, of peas and the grains thoroughly covered with it by 

 shovelling them over and over. The shovelling should be repeated each 

 day for several days. This treatment is applied to seed peas about two 

 weeks before planting. 



Holding over the Seed. — When peas are kept over a season in tightly 

 closed sacks the beetles perish. They, unlike the bean weevil, will breed 

 only in the green seeds. There is one brood a season. 



The best treatment is to gather the pea crop as early as possible ; to 

 thresh at once and treat with carbon bi-sulphide ; and to destroy the 

 beetles in grains shelled in the field by deep plowing or by turning in hogs 

 or poultry. 



