THE LOCUST BORER. 



11 



It should be remembered that all the holes found in a tree and all 

 other damage by the borer are not the work of one generation, but 

 usually that of repeated annual attack during the life of the tree; 

 also, that a burrow in the sap wood of a young tree remains the same 

 burrow in the heartwood of the old tree, without change, except in 

 the healing of the original entrance; therefore the number of borers 

 and the amount of damage each year is not 

 so great as it might appear, and, while each 

 female is doubtless capable of depositing 

 more than a hundred eggs," it would ap- 

 pear from the writer's observations that 

 only a small percentage of the larvae hatch- 

 ing from them survive the bark-infesting 

 stage or complete their development to the 

 adult stage. This suggeststhat any method 

 of management which will insure the de- 

 struction of a large number of larvae and 

 beetles each year will reduce the damage 

 to a point where there will be practically 

 no loss. 



SUGGESTIONS FOB. CONTROLLING THE 

 INSECT AND PREVENTING LOSSES. 



With our present knowledge of the life 

 history and habits of the locust borer, it 

 would appear that the following sugges- 

 tions might be of practical value in the 

 control of insects in large plantations and 

 forests. 



The fact that the young larvae from eggs 

 deposited during the summer remain in the 

 outer bark during the winter and do not 

 enter the wood until the following May 

 suggests that if locust for all purposes were 

 cut between November and May, the bark removed from that portion 

 which is of value, and the remainder burned, it would destroy vast 

 numbers of the insects and contribute greatly toward the protection 

 of the remaining growth. 



The fact that badly infested trees may be detected durmg May, 

 June, and July by the ejected sap and borings, suggests this simple 

 method of locating such trees, which should be cut close to the ground 

 and burned, before the first of August, todestroyti ie borers before 



aAn examination of the ovaries (fig. 6) of beetles collected in August shows that 

 they may contain as many as fifty mature eggs at one time, m addition to a large 

 number of immature ones. 



Fig. 6.— The locust boret (Cyllene 

 TObinise): Reproductive organs of 

 female beetle. Highly magnified 

 (original). 



