6 4 



Raspberry Weevil. 



they live and feed during the winter. They also attack tne 

 roots of other plants, as vines, strawberries, and gooseberries. 



The beetle is often very injurious to bush apple, pear, and 

 plum trees, by gnawing the bark or skin off the shoots, and 

 in the case of grafted fruit trees it occasions serious damage 

 by biting the young shoots of the grafts. Several instances 

 have been recently reported in which the grafts died, and it 

 was supposed the grafting had been either badly performed 

 or that the grafts had not taken properly, but after careful 

 examination it was discovered that the bark or skin had been 

 gnawed all round the shoots. The trees were watched and 

 beetles were seen ascending them in the twilight. An 

 attack of this kind caused serious losses in fruit plantations 

 where many trees had been grafted. It was a difficult and 

 expensive process to eradicate the beetles in these circum- 

 stances, as it was necessary to constantly examine the earth 

 close round the trees and to move it frequently for some 

 distance round them. 



In trees worked high the beetles may be checked by 

 placing unpleasant compositions between the ground and the 

 grafts, or they may be caught by holding tarred boards in 

 such a way that on tapping the trees smartty the beetles fall 

 into the tar, but for trees worked near the ground on 

 Paradise and Quince stocks these measures are not so easily 

 applied. 



Wall fruit trees, especially apricots, are often much 

 damaged by Otiorrhynchus fticipes, and peaches, nectarines, 

 and plum trees upon walls also sometimes suffer from their 

 attacks. In all cases of injury of this nature the old nail 

 holes, cracks, and crevices in walls should be examined and 

 the holes should be filled up with mortar or cement, as they 

 afford shelter not only for these beetles, but also for other 

 injurious insects. 



This beetle is often called the raspberry weevil, as it is 

 most mischievous in plantations of this fruit, and when once 

 established there it is difficult to get rid of it. The soil round 

 the canes should be hoed frequently, and tarred boards held 

 beneath the canes at night so that on shaking the latter the 

 beetles fall into the tar. Strawberry plants are also often 



