68 PRACTICAL TREE REPAIR 



wounds. In addition a half-inch curved wood- 

 carver's gouge will be handy. Some steel wire 

 will be needed for probing the burrows. Differ- 

 ent kinds of wire suit different jobs, sometimes a 

 stiff, and sometimes a soft wire being the best. 

 The materials required are putty, which is the 

 handiest thing with which to plug up small holes, 

 though some people prefer the more expensive 

 grafting wax, carbon bisulphide for poisoning 

 grubs in their holes, and the ever-essential paint 

 or tar. 



The attack begins with a careful study of the 

 enemy's plan of campaign — determining whether 

 or not more than one age of larvs is present, 

 whether, say, some burrows contain one-year 

 larvae and others two-year; discerning the signs, 

 often very minute, which mark the presence of a 

 burrow; and investigating carefully the direction 

 and length of the burrow and the comparative 

 effectiveness of the probing and poisoning methods 

 of attack. If it is found that the burrow is large 

 enough and straight enough to make it possible to 

 kill the larvae by probing the burrows with a wire, 

 that method should be adopted. It is far the most 

 rapid. After the hole is probed it must be 

 plugged up with putty. If there is any dead bark 

 about the entrance of the burrow (and many 

 borers live for a time just under the bark before 



