PINE-WEEVIL. 231 



the beetle and produces living young. They come out 

 and grow in the ground into a form of Rhabditis that 

 lays eggs. The worms from these eggs eventually enter the 

 Hylobius. 



e. Remedial Measures. 



i. Trenches to trap the beetle should be dug. These may 

 be utilised either for isolating the plantations, or merely for 

 catching the beetles. The isolating trenches are dug round 

 the felling-areas early in spring in order to separate them 

 from neighbouring cultivations, and to collect, the beetles 

 which may appear within their radius. The other class of 

 trenches for trapping the insects is dug within the felling- 

 areas. If this plan is followed, all cultivations are isolated. 

 The trenches must be kept in order, and repaired after rainy 

 weather ; all beetles which are found in them should be 

 collected daily and crushed. As many as 1,200 beetles have 

 been found in one of the holes made ten metres apart in such 

 trenches. 



Unfortunately these very effective measures are not always 

 possible, for instance in stony or very loose ground, or on 

 steep slopes. The dimensions for the trenches are given on 

 p. 175. 



ii. Artificial breeding-material may be supplied in June, in 

 the form of smooth-barked pine or spruce poles 3 to 5 feet 

 long and 2 to 4 inches thick, cut when in full sap and buried 

 in the ground at intervals of 30 paces apart, obliquely, so that 

 one end is 10 in. deep in the ground, and the other about 1 

 or 2 in. above the surface. In order that the bark may be 

 preserved intact, the holes must be dug beforehand and the 

 pieces of wood placed in them and covered with earth and 

 sods, which should be slightly trodden down. 



These traps should be placed both the years before and after 

 a felling in the felling-areas, but are useless in cultivations ; 

 they should be carefully pulled out in September and October 

 and burned, so as to destroy the larvae they contain, and in 

 order that none of them may be overlooked, they should be 

 placed regularly, or a small stick should be stuck in the ground 

 by each of them. 



