640 



The Apple Blossom Weevil. 



[Oct., 



being very efi&cacious in keeping the weevil in check, and he 

 records it as destroying 27.4 per cent, of the weevil grubs in 

 Cambridgeshire in 1916. Numbers of parasites were reared 

 at Long Ashton in 1921, the parasitism working out at 5 per 

 cent. 



Control Measures. — The Apple Blossom Weevil is possibly 

 one of the most difficult of orchard pests to control, and it 

 is very doubtful if any one control measure will, of itself, give 

 any appreciable freedom from loss. In view of this it is prob- 

 able that several operations should be fitted into the routine 

 work and these will tend to give increasing freedom from 

 attack if followed year after year. 



Banding. — This operation consists of tying corrugated paper, 

 ordinary brown paper twice folded, or sacking round the 

 trunks of trees fairly near the crotch. There are two periods 

 in the year when banding is likely to yield good results. The 

 first is in spring towards the end of March and on into April, 

 the period when the weevils alternately feed and shelter. 

 This is important in that weevils caught at this time have 

 not commenced egg-laying. In 1921 Mr. D. E. Tower, of 

 Pershore, tried banding in March and April and quite satis- 

 factory numbers of weevils were caught. It was noticed that 

 the bands sheltered more weevils early in the morning than 

 later in the day and that most of them were located on the 

 south side of the tree. The second period for banding would 

 be from the end of June onward, the object being to supply 

 the weevil with a readily available winter shelter. In 1921 

 at Long x\shton bands were put on in the middle of June with 

 the result that most weevils were caught during July, August 

 and September, the numbers rapidly decreasing as winter 

 drew on. In this connection it is most important that the 

 bands be in position early, otherwise the weevils may be 

 driven to shelter by an early spell of cold weather and seek 

 shelter out of range of the growers' treatment, e.g., in the 

 bark of neighbouring trees such as oak and elm. 



The bands may be examined about once per week in the 

 case of the summer banding, but in the spring they need to be 

 examined every morning as the weevils are very restless and 

 move about from place to place on the tree during the day. 



When the bands are removed the greater number of weevils 

 will mme away attacherl to them and nan be shaken off into a 

 bucket containing paraffin. Some weevils, however, may be 



