72 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



campaign against the individual beetles in the coco-nut 

 trees. The most effective way of fighting these which 

 is known at this time is by killing them with a sharp 

 iron or stick in the holes in the tree, or pulling them 

 out of the holes and then killing them. After this is 

 done, it is a good practice to plug the hole with a piece 

 of clay, or in any other handy way, in order to prevent 

 other beetles from entering easily in the same place. In 

 some places the beetles are said to be driven out by 

 merely pouring water into the holes. 



Third. — It has been observed that trees which are 

 tapped for the production of toddy are rarely, if ever, 

 attacked by the black beetles. These beetles are 

 frequently found drowned in the vessels which are 

 used to catch the sap, and it may be that the freedom 

 of the trees from attack is entirely due to the greater 

 attraction for the beetles which is exercised by the sap 

 as it begins to ferment. In groves which are rather 

 severely infested by beetles it is a good practice to use 

 a considerable part of the trees for a few months for the 

 production of toddy in order to get rid of the beetles, 

 even though the toddy is hardly profitable in itself. 

 In neighbourhoods where the beetles are constantly 

 numerous, and where it is impracticable to get rid of 

 the outside sources of infection, it will be found good 

 policy to tap occasional trees, even as many as one tree 

 in every four, for the sake of the protection of the 

 tapped trees and their neighbours. Where there is a 

 demand for the toddy, it is not an unusual condition 

 that the trees which are tapped yield higher returns 

 than those which are used for the production of copra. 

 This method of fighting beetles therefore has a great 

 advantage over all others in that the campaign can 

 itself be made a source of profit instead of expense. 



There are other ways of less importance which have 

 been advocated for the suppression of these beetles. 

 Considerable work has been done at the Philippine 

 College of Agriculture in an attempt to poison the 

 beetles without poisoning the trees. It has been found 



