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Pales Weevil

Hylobius pales[3]

The pales weevil is a dark weevil that breeds in freshly cut pine stumps and chews the bark of nearby young conifers and twigs.[1][2]

Group
Insect
Order
Coleoptera
Family
Curculionidae
US records
26 states
Sources
3 cited
Updated
2026-10-16
Dark pales weevil with a long snout on a fingertip
Dark pales weevil with a long snout on a fingertip. Photo: Samuel Paul Galick, public domain (CC0), via iNaturalist
On this page
  1. Identification
  2. Look-alikes
  3. Where it lives
  4. Biology
  5. Damage and signs
  6. Health risk
  7. Control
  8. Related profiles
  9. Common questions
  10. Sources

How to identify it

  • Adults are very dark with gray or orange spots; grubs are legless and white with brown heads.[1]
  • Chewed bark heals over with white, crystallized resin that looks like sugar.[1]

Look-alikes

Look-alikeHow to tell them apart
Pine root collar weevilHas a similar life cycle, but its larvae feed under the bark at and below the soil line of living trees, yellowing and killing the foliage.[2]

Where it lives

A serious pest in southern Illinois and the South, especially in nurseries, Christmas tree farms and cutover pine land.[1][2]

US map: public records from 26 states since 1990 (GBIF).

Biology and life cycle

Adults overwinter and emerge from late April to June; they feed at night and hide in leaf litter by day, and many live two seasons.[2]

Eggs are laid in the roots of freshly cut pine stumps, where larvae feed through summer before emerging in fall.[1][2]

Damage and signs

  • Adults chew bark down to the wood on seedlings and twigs, girdling them so tips flag, turn reddish and die.[1][2]
  • It breeds in pines, hemlocks, junipers, spruces, firs and cedars and likely attacks any conifer near an area where trees were cut.[1]
  • NC State says it readily invades landscapes; Illinois says it seldom bothers landscapes because little breeding material is left there.[1][2]

Health risk

None to people or pets.[1][2]

Control

Sanitation

Grind out the stumps of cut conifers so the weevils have nowhere to breed.[2]

Pesticides

A landscape-labeled pyrethroid applied as soon as damage is noticed should protect conifers.[1]

Common questions

Why are the tips of my young pines dying near where trees were cut?
Pales weevils breeding in fresh stumps may be girdling the twigs.[1][2]
What is the white sugary stuff on chewed pine bark?
Crystallized resin over pales weevil feeding wounds.[1]

Sources

  1. NC State Extension, “Pales Weevil (PDIC Factsheet).” content.ces.ncsu.edu/pales-weevil (accessed 2026-10-16)
  2. University of Illinois Extension, “Pales Weevil and Root Collar Weevil.” extension.illinois.edu/insects/pales-weevil-and-root-collar-weevil (accessed 2026-10-16)
  3. iNaturalist, “Hylobius pales taxon page (order and family).” www.inaturalist.org/taxa/221937 (accessed 2026-10-06)

Updated 2026-10-16. Built from sourced records. Spot an error? Tell us.