IMPORTANT PECAX INSECTS AND THEIR CONTROL. 



13 



CONTROL MEASURES. 



It is impracticable to spray for the control of this pest, because 

 of the great difficulty encountered in destroying the larvae before 

 they enter the nuts or shucks. It will be found impossible also to 

 destroy the larvae and pupse, or prevent the emergence of moths, 

 by plowing under the shucks during the fall or winter months, as 

 experiments have shown that the burial of infested shucks as deep 

 as 6 inches during the late fall did not prevent many moths from 

 emerging the following spring. 



Since the insect passes the winter as larvre in the shucks on the 

 ground, it seems that the best method of control is to gather and 

 destroy all shucks, and this should be done immediately after the 

 harvesting of the nut crop, or not later than the middle of February. 

 By the adoption of 



this method the 

 majority of the 

 larvae will be killed 

 and thus the in- 

 festation of the pe- 

 can orchard during 

 the ensuing season 

 will be prevented. 

 Hickory trees 

 growing adjacent 

 to pecan orchards 

 will prove always a 

 source of infesta- 

 tion by this pest as 



11 th r * FIG. 11. The pecan shuckworm: Larval injury to matured pecan nuts. 



jurious insects. It would seem, therefore, that the cutting down of 

 hickory trees in the immediate vicinity of the orchards would be 

 a very good procedure for pecan growers. 



THE PECAN WEEVIL.i 



The pecan weevil, often termed the hickory-nut weevil, has long 

 been known in some sections as a serious drawback to the successful 

 culture of pecan nuts as well as hickory nuts. The greatest 

 damage reported has been on the wild pecans in Texas, but this 

 insect is also a formidable pest in certain restricted localities in 

 Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana, where the so-called paper-shell 

 pecans are grown 011 a large scale. The injury by this, weevil is 

 recognized readily by the circular holes in the nutshells (fig 12), 

 which are made by the grubs in leaving the nuts to enter the ground 

 for hibernation and subsequent pupation. One grower in middle 

 Georgia reported that 90 per cent of his Stuart pecans and 15 per 



i Balaninus caryae Horn. 



