203 



The Apple-Blossom Weevil. 



It is recommended that all long grass, leaves, and rubbish 

 should be cleared away underneath fruit-trees on grass land, 

 and on cultivated land it would be well to dig round the 

 trees and apply lime or lime ashes, or soot and lime mixed. 



The tarred, or greased, bands put round the fruit-trees to 

 prevent the ascent of the female winter moths would hinder 

 the female weevils from ascending, assuming that Curtis, 

 Schmidberger, and others are correct in their opinion that 

 the female weevils crawl up the trees and do not fly. 



In Brittany some apple-growers scrape the bark of the 

 trunks and large branches of the apple-trees with a scraper, 

 and brush every part with a stiff carpet brush, having 

 placed a cloth round the tree to catch the pieces of bark 

 and the beetles that are dislodged. These are collected 

 and burnt. Some limewash the trunks and limbs after this 

 process ; others apply a composition of lime and naphthaline, 

 but this is said to be not quite effectual in keeping away 

 the weevils. 



In Great Britain it has been found that limewashing 

 trees is not effective against insects unless the bark is 

 thoroughly cleared off and the wash worked well into every 

 cranny while it is fresh and hot. 



Insecticides have been tried in France at the time of 

 flowering, but without good results. Sulphur is burnt in a 

 vessel at the end of a pole, and applied close under the 

 branches of the trees. It takes, it is said, about a quarter of 

 an hour to treat one tree, at a cost of about 5d. This process 

 is said to have answered in some cases, but experiments 

 made at Rouen and Saint Ouen de Thouberville proved far 

 from encouraging. It is most difficult to employ insecticides 

 with advantage, as compositions strong enoug'h to kill or 

 drive away the weevils would probably injure the tender 

 buds, and after the larva is in the bud it is hopeless to 

 attempt to reach it. 



A method of keeping down the number of these weevils, 

 adopted in parts of France and recommended by several who 

 have practised it, is to shake the branches of the trees to 

 make the insects fall on to a cloth spread below. The cloth, 

 an old rickcloth being best, is cut and arranged so as to fit 



