THE BLOWELY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22358, 23 March 1938, Page 15

THE BLOWELY

WIDESPREAD INCIDENCE

INSIDIOUS FORM OF ATTACK •‘ % • Sheepfarmers are very much concerned at the severity of the blowfly trouble this autumn. The attacks are not confined to isolated areas, but are general throughout the whole of North Canterbury. The wet autumn is probably the primary, if not the sole cause. i

Flock owners say that the attacks .are most insidious. They develop on parts of the victim not visible to the eye in an ordinary inspection, and by the tune the trouble is discovered the victims are well on the xoad to being fa F mer told the writer that the destroying agent appeared to be a small green fly quite distinct in appearance from the ordinary blowfly. Another stated that the first intimation the farmer got was the trail of flies following the victim. In this case the owner had dipped ahd also used herosene, but the trouble had not been S? t i r ?l y sub ,dued. A third farmer said that the only really effective way he could deal with the trouble was to machine shear off the affected wool, once the victims were discovered The troublesome feature of the visitation, according to some farmers whose flocks are affected, is to discover the attacks in the early stages, us the fly had started its work on the stomach in many cases and h*d abandoned the usual haunts. Lambs are doing far from well on the soft feed that is available, and also pri the wilted rape and the absent turnip tops to which white butterflies have made a prior call, and the blowfly, or whatever species of fly it is, is adding to the seasonal set-backs.

• The attacks this year, after so long a period of comparative immunity, are variously ascribed. One man has raised the theory that the wool had a lot of dry yolk this summer, and the wet weather imjparts an 'aroma to the yolk that appeals to the fly, and so encourages its attacks. Whether this theory has anything behind it farmers have to find out from their own observations. It is merely handed on. However, the incidence of the pest suggests to owners the wisdom of keeping a close look-out on their flocks and so catch the trouble in its earliest stages.