SMALL PINE-WEEVIL. 203 



weeds, stumps, logs, or dead branches. Early in autumn, females laying 

 eggs often gather in large numbers in such places, and reappear in spring 

 to pair again. Prevention and Extermination. Extensive clear- fell ing of 

 mature Conifer-crops and heavy windfalls, especially near young planta- 

 tions, always increases this destructive weevil. Though seldom practic- 

 able, the best way of preventing attacks is to grub up all the stumps 

 and roots as fuel ; and where this can be done, there is little danger. 

 Felling the timber by cutting through the main roots with an axe and 

 pulling over the tree is not sufficient, as many thick roots remain in 

 the ground. 



When weevils are numerous the stumps can be used to trap the eggs, 

 and then grubbed in late summer, after the eggs have been laid, or in 

 the early spring. Where young plantations are to be made, it is best to 

 peel the bark from stumps and roots so far as practicable, burn the area, 

 heaping all the rubbish over the stools to dry them as much as possible, 

 and let the land lie fallow for one or two years after a clear fall of timber. 

 If the fall be at once replanted without thorough burning or removing 

 the stumps and big roots, then breeding-places and feeding-grounds are 

 both provided for the beetle. 



In plantations where the weevils appear, bark-traps should be laid with 

 pieces of fresh Spruce or Pine bark, put with the soft inner side next the 

 ground, and weighed down with stones ; or freshly cut Pine or Spruce 

 poles may be cut into faggots about 3 ft. long, and a strip of bark about 

 2 in. broad peeled off lengthways, before laying them down with the barked 

 part on the ground. The beetles, attracted by the fresh resinous odour, 

 attack the cambial layer of these decoys, and can be collected daily. 

 They will also feed on bundles of fresh Pine branches, and can be collected 

 by being shaken out on sheets spread on the ground to catch them as they 

 fall. Handpicking by boys and girls is also useful. When collected, they 

 can be killed by pouring boiling water over them. 



* The small banded Pine-weevil, Pissodes notatus (Fig. 45), J to | in. 

 long, and with feelers springing from near the middle of the snout, is often 

 found along with the large Pine-weevil, and is very destructive to Pines, 

 Spruce, and Larch. It attacks both as larva and beetle, the larva being 

 very destructive, in boring in the bark, and between bark and sapwood, 

 and gnawing away parts where the bark is thin. The weevil does not 

 gnaw, but pushes its snout through the bark into the sapwood near the 

 foot of young plants 3 to 6 years old, and sucks the sap, a badly attacked 

 stem looking as if it had been there pricked all over with a needle and 

 beads of resin had oozed out. 



Beetle { to in. long, dark red-brown, irregularly covered with small 

 scale-like greyish-white hairs ; on thorax 6 to 8 plainly marked small white 

 or yellowish dots ; elytra with two broad rusty - red transverse bands 



