The pales weevil, Hylobius pales (Herbst), and the deodar weevil, Piss odes nemorensis Germar, are regeneration pests of pine plantations in the eastern United States. Attempts to sample regeneration weevils in Virginia have met with little success. Two trap types were field tested to determine their effectiveness in sampling H. pales and P. nemorensis populations in Virginia Christmas tree plantations. Labor intensive pit traps, using natural host materials and synthetic volatiles, caught significantly more weevils than PVC pitfall traps baited with synthetic volatiles alone. No differences in trap catches were observed between stationary and rotated traps. Vegetation management had no effect on trap catch. However, it was observed that newly planted white pine seedlings (Pinus strobus L.) were fed upon by H. pales at Significantly higher rates in plots not managed for competing vegetation than in herbicide treated plots. Feeding activity in mowed plots was intermediate. Trap catch did not correlate with seedling damage within or among sampling periods, or between years. The seasonal activity of both species is reviewed in detail. Mark-and-recapture techniques used to assess trap efficacy showed traps baited with pine material were most effective, irrespective of trap type. The response of H. pales adults to different ethanol-and-turpentine ratios in a laboratory bioassay did not vary with respect to gender or age. No gender differences in response to treatments were observed in these studies. / Master of Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/41060 |
| Date | 13 February 2009 |
| Creators | Fettig, Christopher John |
| Contributors | Entomology, Salom, Scott M., Gray, Jodi A., Johnson, James E., Youngman, Roger R. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | ix, 83 leaves, BTD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | OCLC# 34609469, LD5655.V855_1996.F488.pdf |
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