Northern Nut Growers Association, report of the proceedings at the eighth annual meeting: Stamford, Connecticut, September 5 and 6, 1917
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association, report of the proceedings at the eighth annual meeting: Stamford, Connecticut, September 5 and 6, 1917
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
There are several borers attacking the wood of the trunk of the hickory,
but one of the commonest is the painted hickory borer. It also
occasionally attacks black walnut, butternut, mulberry and osage orange.
In hickory especially the larval tunnels are often found in the wood
when trees are felled. There is probably one brood annually and the
winter passed in the pupa stage, though it may possibly hibernate as a
larva. Its life history is not fully understood. It is a common
occurrence in Connecticut, and specimens are sent me every year, for the
adult beetles to emerge in March from firewood in the house or cellar
and crawl about seeking a chance to escape. The housewife fears that a
terrible household pest has descended upon her, and with fear and
trembling invokes the aid of the Agricultural Station.
The beetles appear outside in April and May, and probably oviposit soon
afterward. They are about three-fourths of an inch in length and are
black, prettily marked with golden yellow.
The insect can be controlled only by the old arduous methods of digging
out, and injecting carbon disulphide into the burrows.
Several other long-horned beetles are borers in the hickory and other
nut trees. Then, too, the leopard moth, _zeuzera pyrina_ Linn., and the
carpenter worm, _Prionoxystus robiniae_ Peck, may be found occasionally
in most any kind of tree.
The chestnut tree (if it has thus far escaped the blight or bark
disease) may show small, deep tunnels into the wood of trunk and
branch, made by the chestnut timber worm, _Lymexylon sericeum_ Harr.
Slow-growing woodland trees are more apt to show these galleries than
trees of rapid growth standing in the open.
There are a number of tussock moths, sawflies, beetles, etc., which feed
on the leaves of nut trees. Spraying with lead arsenate will prevent
damage. There are also many sucking insects attacking them, such as the
hickory gall aphis, and several species found on the leaves. Some of
these may be controlled by spraying with a contact insecticide such as
nicotine solution or kerosene emulsion.
In the Southern States, pecan trees are attached by some of these
insects which I have mentioned; there are also many more which cannot
even be mentioned in the time allotted to this paper. Information may be
obtained regarding them, by any one interested, and for this purpose I
have appended a short list of publications.
LITERATURE.
Britton, W. E., and Kirk, H. B. The Life History of the Walnut Weevil or
Curculio. Report Conn. Agr. Expt. Station for 1912, page 240.
Brooks, Fred E. Snout Beetles That Injure Nuts. Bull. 128, West Virginia
Agr. Expt. Sta., Morgantown, W. Va., 1910.
Chittenden, F. H. The Nut Weevils, Circular 99, Bureau of Entomology, U.
S. Dept. of Agr., Washington, D. C., 1908.
Felt, E. P. Insects Affecting Park and Woodland Trees. Memoir No. 8, N.
Y. State Museum, Albany, N. Y. 2 vols., 1905, 1906.
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