372 



BUGS, INSECTS, ETC.— REMEDIES FOR. 



PLUM CURCULIO, or Plum-WeeviL— 

 The plum-weevil, commonly known as 

 the " curculio," was said by Dr. Walsh to 

 be double-brooded, he stating that the 

 first brood at Rock Island, Illinois, ap- 

 pears from July 19 to August 4, and the 

 second brood from August 23 to Septem- 

 ber 28; but Mr. Riley states distinctly 

 that it is single-brooded, and that it hy- 

 bernates in the perfect or weevil state, 

 and not in the larval or pupal, as was 

 formerly imagined. The beetle also is 

 more nocturnal than diurnal in habit, and 

 is very active at night; but during the 

 daytime, especially in bright sunny weath- 

 er, rests among the leaves and branches, 

 or under some shelter. It was formerly 

 stated that the female first bored a cres- 

 cent-shaped cut or incision with her beak, 

 and then deposited an egg in the cut ; 

 but Dr. F. C. Hill, of Ohio, states that 

 the female first bores a round hole with 

 her snout, not straight in, but slanting 

 backward, so that the cavity is just below 

 the skin; she deposits her egg in the 

 hole, and then cuts the usual crescent- 

 shaped slit in front of it so as to under- 

 mine the egg, and leave it in a kind of 

 flap formed by the little piece of flesh of 

 the fruit which she has undermined, in 

 order to meet the piece around the egg, 

 and prevent the growing fruit from crush- 

 ing it. The insect in the perfect state is 



Fig. 28.— Plum Curculio. 

 a, Larva; b, Pupa, into which the larva is 

 transformed within a little cavity underground 

 and of the perfect curculio (a). 



said by Dr. Riley to gouge holes in 

 peaches and apples, and also to feed on 

 bark and tender twigs, and to gnaw holes 

 in the leaves. In regard to the new 

 remedy proposed during 1875 by Mr. 

 Ransom, of St. Joseph, Michigan, in the 

 Prairie Farmer and elsewhere, we quote 

 from Mr. Ransom himself: Some experi- 



ments were made by laying pieces of 

 bark, etc., on the ground under the trees, 

 as a shelter under which the curculio* 

 could hide. The first night, about sun- 

 set, he prepared two hundred and fifty 

 trees, and in the morning went around,, 

 and in about three hours caught six hun- 

 dred and forty-seven curculios ; the next, 

 day having finished the orchard of four 

 hundred trees, he killed four thousand 

 one hundred and seventy-one curculios.. 

 The total number of curculios killed by 

 him in one season was seventeen thou- 

 sand nine hundred and forty-five. The 

 Michigan Farmer, in commenting upon 

 this article, says that the State entomolo- 

 gist of Illinois, and the horticultural 

 editor of the Prairie Farmer, having 

 been at St. Joseph, examining into the 

 workings of the method proposed by Dr. 

 Ransom to destroy the plum curculio,. 

 stated that the traps were pieces of bark 

 three or four inches long, and about half 

 as wide. Before putting them down, the 

 ground was smoothed and the earth 

 pressed close to the trunks, so as to leave 

 no hiding place for the curculio to enter. 

 The pieces of bark were then laid close 

 around the trunks of the trees, three or 

 four pieces to a tree, and pressed down 

 in contact with the earth, so that only 

 very small openings should be left under 

 them. The pieces laid close to the 

 ground, with one edge touching the tree, 

 were generally selected by the insects, 

 whose object was to shelter themselves,, 

 while at rest, from observation and possi- 

 bly from the cold. On further inquiry,- 

 this method appears to have been only 

 partially effective, and the fruit-growers 

 near St. Joseph found that, though they 

 destroyed many insects by this trapping 

 method, more were destroyed by jarring 

 the trees. When the weather became 

 warm, the curculios were taken under the 

 trees in diminished numbers, while in 

 fact their numbers were rapidly augment- 

 ed in the trees. The conclusions arrived 

 at are briefly as follows: The trapping 

 system will help to thin out the curculio 

 before the season for stinging the fruit 

 commences ; that it will not do to dis- 

 pense with jarring the trees; and, fur- 

 thermore, that pieces of bark for a short 

 time, early in the season, when the days 

 are sometimes warm and the nights cold, 

 and before the peach blossoms have 



