IMPORTANT PECAX INSECTS AND THEIR CONTROL. 



35 



in practice', and therefore can not recommend its use with any 

 decree of certainty as to its effectiveness. 



The injury to pecan nursery stock will be most serious on recently 

 cleared land where decaying wood is abundant, as termites show a 

 decided preference for such wood as a breeding place. New land to 

 be planted to nurseries should have all dead wood removed from the 

 soil, and the growing of two or 

 three farm crops on the land is 

 advisable before planting the 

 seedling nuts for the ultimate 

 propagation of budded and 

 grafted trees. As a nursery prac- 

 tice, for the prevention of attack 

 by this insect, it is urged strongly 

 that recently cleared land be 

 avoided. The same advice holds 

 true in case a young pecan or- 

 chard is to be set out, as pre- 

 vention is a far more reliable 

 method of fighting the pest than 

 is the use of any direct remedy. 



THE OAK OR HICKORY COSSID.i 



The oak or hickory cossid in 

 its larval state inhabits the 

 trunks or larger branches of pe- 

 can. hickory, and oaks, in which 

 it bores or tunnels in the hard 

 wood, making- galleries several 

 inches in length. The work of 

 the larva is detected . rather 

 readily by the castings of wood 

 that are distributed at the base 

 of the tree trunks. A careful 

 search of the affected trees will 

 reveal the hole from which these 

 castings are pushed out by the 

 larva, in order that its larval 



gallery mav be kept clear. When FlG - 4 - The white ant (Leucatermes 



f, i f n -^ Injury to roots of pecan nursery stock. 



the larva is full grown, it con- 



siderably enlarges this hole, which is more or less oval in shape, and 

 then transforms to pupa. Just before the adult insect is ready to 

 emerge, the pupa wriggles its way to the mouth of its gallery, and 

 upon the issuance of the moth the pupal case is left protruding a 

 little from the exit hole. 



Cossula magnified Strecker. 



