32 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



middle to the latter part of June and from the 9th to the latter part 

 of August. This pest displays a marked preference for the more 

 vigorous leaders of white pine, though it also attacks pitch pine 

 and spruce. 



Natural enemies. This borer is preyed upon by woodpeckers 

 and a number of parasitic insects. The latter should be protected 

 and allowed to escape wherever practical. 



Preventives and remedies. Cutting out and burning the infested 

 leaders in midsummer, if systematically followed, will result in 

 material benefit. It is well to delay this operation until pupae have 

 begun to develop, since it will then be easier to recognize the in- 

 fested leaders and there will be little or no danger of weevils 

 escaping. Generally speaking, from the middle to the latter part of 

 July will be the best time for this work. The infested shoots 

 should be placed in a barrel laid upon its side, or other receptacle, 

 and the open end covered with ordinary wire screen (one-tenth 

 inch) fine enough to prevent the escape of the weevils and yet allow 

 the issuance of parasites. It is desirable to leave these infested 

 tips among the trees so that the parasites will have less difficulty 

 in finding their natural prey. 



The difficulty with the procedure described above is that one 

 generation at least is allowed to injure the trees before much is 

 accomplished. Earlier collecting in the field showed a surprising 

 scarcity of weevils on trees which had been systematically gone 

 over. The fact that adults may live two or even three years and 

 deposit eggs each season, makes it even more desirable that they 

 should be destroyed early. It is comparatively easy to beat the 

 weevils from small trees into a moderate to fair sized, insect net. 

 In cooperation with Mr Waldo C. Johnston of Cooperstown this 

 method was tried on an area of fifty acres set with about 60,000 

 pines. The work was started a little late, namely about May 21st, 

 and the trees carefully collected over four times at intervals of 

 approximately four or five days, each. At the outset two to four 

 weevils were caught on each tree, and toward the last only one 

 or two insects for each row of probably 400 trees would be obtained. 

 The cost of these four collections amounted to $64 or only $1.28 

 an acre. An examination July 8th resulted in our not being able 

 to find any weevils on the pines. It is very probable that three 

 collectings, particularly if the first was a little earlier, namely the 

 first or second week in May and the other two at about ten day 

 intervals, would have resulted in capturing most of the weevils at 



