12 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON ALFALFA WEEVIL. 



It feeds on plants belonging to the alfalfa family, injuring all parts of the plant above 

 ground. 



The eggs are laid in the spring and early summer in the stems or on the buds and 

 leaves, and hatch in about ten days. The young or larvae are small alfalfa-green 

 worms with a black head; they never become much more than one-quarter of an inch 

 in length when full grown. They feed on and in the leaf-buds, in the stalks and on 

 the leaves. 



The larvae have no true legs and have the habit of feeding or resting in a curled 

 position. 



When full grown, about 50 or 60 days after hatching, they go to the ground and spin 

 around them a lace-cocoon, in which, in about fourteen days, they have turned into 

 the full-grown, hard-shelled adult. 



This adult feeds on the stems, leaves and buds for several weeks and in August goes 

 into hibernation for the winter, seeking any well sheltered place. 



The insect now occurs in Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Morgan, Summit, Wasatch, 

 Utah, and Tooele Counties, and threatens to eventually reach all our alfalfa growing 

 regions. It spreads rapidly in the adult or beetle stage by flying in spring and summer 

 and by being carried with articles shipped from an infested region, and on railroads, 

 in wagons and automobiles, traveling through the places where it occurs. 



It is recommended that alfalfa be disced in early spring to stimulate it to better 

 growth. That the first growth be cut when the most of the eggs have been laid (middle 

 of May), and then brush-drag the field thoroughly. 



Sheep may be pastured or* the fields at this time for two weeks, and alfalfa then 

 watered and a good crop will usually be assured. 



Gathering machines to capture the larvae and beetles have given good results when 

 used on the fields at the time the insects are most numerous. 



Fields should be brush-dragged again after the first crop has been cut. 



All weeds and rubbish should be cleaned from fields, yards, ditches and fence 

 rows so that there will be less opportunity for the weevils to find winter shelter. 



Alfalfa should not be allowed to grow more than seven or eight years in infested 

 districts. 



The amount of work that the Utah Experiment Station did with 

 its limited means and lack of trained men is certainly most com- 

 mendable, and it is difficult to see wherein the course adopted by the 

 station director (Dr. E. D. Ball) and his subordinates could have been 

 improved upon. It was from the beginning an unequal contest, and 

 the only wonder is that so much good was accomplished with the 

 limited means available. 



COOPERATION OF THE BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND THE 

 UTAH EXPERIMENT STATION. 



There was the same basis of cooperation between the Bureau of 

 Entomology and the Utah Experiment Station from April 1 until 

 September 1, 1910, when Prof. Titus left the State, leaving Mr. 

 Ainslie, and for a few weeks Mr. Sadler, to carry on the work. 

 In the agricultural bill covering the fiscal year from 1911-12, 

 under appropriations for cereal and forage insect investigations, 

 $10,000 of this appropriation was made immediately available on 

 passage of the act, to enable the bureau to take up investigations of 

 the alfalfa weevil promptly in the spring of 1911. With the aid of 



