summer and early fall. The larvae spend the winter in
the cut twigs, which are gradually broken off and fall to the ground.
Injury can be reduced by collecting and destroying the fallen twigs
before the larvae complete development the following spring. Recent work
on pecans in Florida indicates that most injury can be prevented by
applying a spray containing 4 pounds of 50-percent DDT or 3 pounds of
15-percent parathion wettable powder per 100 gallons of water. Three
applications appear to be necessary, the first when the injured branches
are first noticed, usually sometime in August, and the second and third
two and four weeks later. When handling parathion be sure to follow the
precautions on the package.

Weevils and Curculios

Weevils and curculios are small, hard-shelled, grayish to brown beetles
about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, with stiff, slender snouts or beaks. They
feed and lay eggs in the nuts and/or shoots of many kinds of nuts,
including hickory, walnut, pecan, chestnut, hazelnut or filbert, and
butternut. There are a number of species, but most of them attack only
one kind of nut. The species usually called weevils most often lay eggs
and injure the nuts from the time the meat begins to form until it is
mature, whereas the group known as curculios generally emerge and cause
most serious damage during the early part of the growing season, when
the new shoots are developing and the crop starts to set and grow.

The chestnut weevils are probably the weevils best known to most of you.
E. R. VanLeeuwen, of the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, has
added much to our knowledge of these weevils in recent years. Two
species, the small chestnut weevil[8] and the large chestnut weevil,[9]
are commonly present together and cause similar injury. The small
chestnut weevil appears as an adult over a period of about 6 weeks
beginning near the first of May in the vicinity of Beltsville, Md., but
it does not lay eggs until about the middle of August. The larger
species does not emerge until about the middle of August and begins to
lay eggs soon thereafter. Eggs are laid in the developing nuts, and
injury is caused by the feeding of the larvae therein. Most of the small
weevils require two years to complete development, and most of the
larger weevils but one year.

Some control of these weevils can be obtained by collecting and
destroying the infested nuts before the larvae leave them to enter the
soil. Better cont