The Bay of Plenty Times THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1949. NEW MENACE FROM THE AIR

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14929, 17 March 1949, Page 2

The Bay of Plenty Times THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1949. NEW MENACE FROM THE AIR

Insects that stow away on aircraft crossing' the ocean from country to country can be a real menace to an island group like New Zealand, hitherto fortified, at least partially by strict quarantine regulations against pests dangerous to livestock, pastures, and crops. Dr. Miller, of the Cawthron Institute, has issued a warning against .these, undesirable immigrants. The damage wrought to New Zealand's economy by various pests-imported' since the advent of the pakeha a century or more ago is.will known. We still have with us to a greater or lesser degree, gbrse, blackberry, and rabbits as evidence of this. No country in. the world was freer of these foes of mankind than New Zealand'when Cook first landed, and even after nearly two centuries this country is still happily far better off in this respect than most other places' in the world. .. In the days of,more, leisurely travel the long sea voyage would prove fatal to most stowaways unless they disclosed themselves m time for necessary steps of immunisation to be undertaken. Quarantine of imported livestock was another safeguard. Despite all this, pests, like the white butterfly, did manage to penetrate the protective screen and create havoc before they could be controlled. Air travel, now beginning to supersede, to a large extent, surface locomotion by sea or land, has multiplied and intensified the peril of insect pests enormously. How, for instance, did the wasp, now plaguing the Waikato, get here, if not by air. for the centre of dissemination is believed to be a Waikato aerodrome.' Bugs of all kinds take naturally to air travel, and any aeroplane landing here from abroad may easily harbour a few stowaways. Last month it was stated by Flying Officer Marshall Laird, of the R.N.Z.A.F. and the zoology department of Victoria College, at the Pacific Science Conference in Christchurch, that "twenty military aircraft arriving at Whenuapai and Ohakea from overseas carried an average of 13.1 insect stowaways a machine." The specimens recorded included "cockroaches, earwigs, plant bugs, butterflies and moths, beetles, wasps, and many sorts of flies and fleas." Not all, of course, were alive, but a few were, and it docs not take many to breed a pest. Dr. Miller, in his observations, referred to precautious taken elsewhere by the use of insecticides, and urged the need for particular care' in this form of quarantine for New Zealand. The warning is timely, and should serve to spur the air authorities to the utmost vigilance and the most effective methods of protecting our pastoral economy from ravages by pests which elsewhere have proved disastrous.