Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
871 
A Weevil that Likes Strawberry Buds 
and Blossoms 
What d nst may be used on strawber¬ 
ries to prevent the bugs from cutting the 
blossoms? I have a good prospect for 
berries if I can control the bugs. What 
quantity of spray or dust would it re¬ 
quire? I have IVa acres. A. s. 
Greensboro. Md. 
Among the many insect pests of the 
strawberry there is one. the strawberry 
weevil, that is so fastidious in its tastes 
that it lives, so far as we know, almost 
entirely on the buds and blossoms of the 
strawberry plants. Moreover, the mother 
weevil, in order to insure to her offspring 
a supply of pollen, deposits each egg 
inside of a staminate bud. and then cuts 
the bud off so that it will fall to the 
ground and not develop any further. 
Since the mother weevils are very num¬ 
erous. and since one lays many eggs, but 
deposits only one in a bud and then cuts 
the bud off, the damage to a field of 
strawberries may be very severe. The 
story of the life and habits of this tiny 
weevil, for it is only about one-tenth of 
an inch in length, is in some respects 
rather puzzling. 
The weevils, which have spent the long 
cold Winter hidden away among moss or 
beneath the leaves along the edges of 
woodlands or in nooks and crannies in 
fields, appear in the Spring as soon as 
the blossom buds begin to form on the 
strawberry plants. The mother weevil, 
with her long snout, gnaws a small hole 
in the bud of a staminate flower and then 
lays a tiny yellowish egg in the cavity 
right next to the anthers which contain 
the coveted pollen. She then crawls 
down the stem of the bud. and with her 
sharp jaws girdles the stem so that the 
bud falls over, and either drops to the 
ground at once, or does so after a few 
days, during which it may hang by a 
slender shred. The egg hatches, and the 
white grub lives within the bud on the 
ground, eating the pollen and growing 
for three or four weeks. It then rests 
quietly as a pupa inside of the bud for 
about one week, when it changes to a 
fully developed weevil. This happens in 
New Jersey in the latter part of June. 
These fresh weevils that have appeared 
in numbers feed for a short time on the 
flowers of the strawberry and then, 
strangely enough, go to their Winter 
quarters, where they appear to remain 
quietly until the next Spring. Why 
these weevils in the -middle of Summer 
should go in search of Winter quarters, 
and when these are found rest there 
apparently inactive <for nearly 10 months, 
is one of the riddles of the insect world. 
It has been determined that the straw¬ 
berry weevil can be controlled by dusting 
the plants with a mixture of one part of 
powdered arsenate of lead to five parts 
of finely ground sulphur. The material 
may be*dusted on the plants by hand, by 
means of a common wire flour sifter, 
which will do very well for a small patch 
of strawberries. In case of a field of 
strawberries the material is best applied 
with a power duster. Two applications 
have proven necessary, one made just as 
soon as the weevils begin to cut off the 
buds and the second about one week 
later. The weevils will probably begin 
their work during the last days of April 
or the first days of May in Southern New 
Jersey and Maryland. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
Haunted House and Flying Squirrels 
More than 40 years ago I was spending 
a night with a new settler in the chestnut 
woods of Southern Ohio, and retired at 
night to a bed in the second story of his 
new log house; a rough room, bare logs 
and hare rafters. There had been some 
talk of noises upstairs, strange noises, 
and my host’s good wife insisted that a 
small owl must have succeeded in gaining 
entrance at some of the numerous un¬ 
chinked cracks in the walls. I was just 
thinl dug of going to sleep when a shadowy 
something passed my face. and. not fear¬ 
ing little owls, I lay quite still, wheu in 
a few minutes something* alighted on the 
bedclothes over my breast. The some¬ 
thing was in my hand in a flash, and in¬ 
stead of feathers I felt soft fur which, 
with a funny little squeal, told me that I 
had captured a flying squirrel. My host 
came up and took it downstairs, and the 
next, afternoon we discovered about a 
dozen others in the dead stub of a giant 
chestnut tree near the house. 
Twenty years afterwards, in the same 
Kind of an upstairs room in the Cumber¬ 
land Mountains, I retired with the infor¬ 
mation that some people supposed that 
room to be haunted. Within half an hour 
. I( ‘ an ' queer noises, and careful watch¬ 
ing showed me by the light of the Autumn 
moon through the window a pair of flying 
■/! urrels on the floor, busily engaged eat- 
something. I laughed' at them and 
vent t° sleep, and the next day an invcs- 
■nftiTi " rovo(1 th «t their home was in 
ai °. la - ,lst tree near the house. Their 
n , ,u n ',v room was to get some 
bo ‘nrri 1! e ° r y cra cks in the rough 
bee. , 1,5;°'’ ®° me oars which had 
meal ,iug * 1,>r e for an early grist of 
flvin^ U ( nn ,aUg l lt ant l handled a good many 
"ets\n q d T reS ' i,,U have ke Pt them as 
fenmt t! in neve m, li,lt 'w but one to at- 
owinor t‘ *\ ,e .v make poor pets, 
fhev sloen f ? 1 * m sht-roaming habits, as 
most ensiU^V n tl j UVn t0 ,la,k - blit are the 
of all Hi,.' a - ,no as . as the gentlest 
the i o3 b^ I ! T L ribe - 1 may add. 
ing r 1 rr- bu ‘‘ , ai( ‘ <li* a m*ear- 
trops jJ f(nosts w ‘tb their old hollow 
Missouri °- D - LYON - 
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**>' 
Blight and Rot 
Cause more Damage than Bugs 
Potato blight is a fungous disease that attacks the vines 
and may kill them in a few hours. It causes rot, either 
in the ground or in the cellar. Blight is a more serious 
enemy than bugs. It shortens the growing season, cuts 
down the yield and causes heavy losses by rot. It is easy 
enough to kill bugs with a poison, but a fungicide is 
needed to prevent blight. You can do both by spraying 
with 
u « or#. 
This combined poison and fungicide prevents blight and kills 
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See your local dealer about Pyrox. Have him reserve enough for 
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