COCONUT PLANTER'S MANUAL. 39 



Breeding Places of the Grubs. — As mentioned above the eggs 

 may be laid in any place where there is likely to be sufficient decaying 

 vegetable matter on which the grubs can feed. The grubs, sometimes 

 known as "manure poochies," are usually to be found in any heap or 

 pit containing cattle or other manure or other decaying refuse, such as 

 coconut husks and leaves, empty cacao pods, and paddy straw. They 

 also breed freely in the decaying stumps and logs of such palms as 

 coconut, palmyra, areca, &c, especially in the drier districts. They 

 may also be found in young and older palms which have been left 

 standing after having been killed by the Red Weevil grubs, or which 

 have died from other causes. They are occasionally found in dead 

 and decaying stumps of old dadap and of jungle trees. Most of the 

 above breeding places are usually to be found in any locality where 

 coconuts and other palms grow, and they are particularly common in 

 towns and villages and on estates where coconuts are grown without 

 careful supervision. 



Control Measures. 



A knowledge of the habits of the Rhinoceros or the Black Beetle 

 will enable coconut planters and others to carry out the following 

 measures of control, which include measures against the beetles, and 

 measures against the larva? or grubs. 



Measures aijainst the Beetles. 

 The collection and destruction of the beetles appear to be the 

 method of control which is generally employed, but it is impossible to 

 check the pest by this means alone if the grubs are breeding in large 

 numbers in the neighbourhood. The beetles are usually caught Avhile 

 feeding in the crowns of coconut palm, either by spearing them with a 

 specially made slender barbed piece of iron, by hooking them out with 

 a piece of stout wire, or by digging them out, In many cases the 

 cure does more harm than the disease, since the wounds made by the 

 beetles may be enlarged and then often left untreated, with the result 

 that decay sets in or the wounds become attractive to egg- laying Red 

 Weevils, the grubs of which either kill or seriously injure the palms. 



The beetles should be carefully extracted and then the wound 

 should be plugged with coconut fibre soaked in tar, or with a mixture 

 of sand and tar, and the hole stopped with clay. Another method 

 used with success in the Dutch East Indies is to extract the beetles 

 and fill the hole with a mixture of 1 part coarse salt and 2 parts 

 sand. The hole is then closed with clay, 



