Historical Background

Although the pales weevil was first described by J. F. W. Herbst in 1797, it was not considered an important forest pest until 1915, when it was responsible for a 70 percent loss in a white pine plantation on the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Mass. The first reported pales weevil damage in the South was in 1943. The weevils seriously damaged loblolly and shortleaf pine reproduction in recently cutover areas in the North Carolina piedmont. The pitch-eating weevil was not reported as an important pest of pine seedlings until the mid-1950's.