STOCKHOLM (Reuters)—Swedish scientists have found a way to discourage destructive pine weevils—treating trees with a substance that smells like the tiny beetles’ excrement.

Female pine weevils lay their eggs in cracks in tree trunks and apply a protective layer of their own feces on top.

Sweden’s TT news agency reported that the scientists have produced a compound that smells like pine weevil excrement. In an experiment, conifer saplings treated with the substance had not attracted the weevils.

"The smell tells the pine weevils, ‘Here lies an egg which we must take care of, here we must not gnaw,’" said Kristina Wallerts, a researcher in the forest test park.

www.for.gov.bc.ca/tip/iig/index.htm
www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/forsite/forsite.htm
www.pfc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/entomology/weevil/index%5Fe.html