FLY PROBLEM IN COOK ISLANDS INVESTIGATED

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29937, 26 September 1962, Page 14

FLY PROBLEM IN COOK ISLANDS INVESTIGATED

A New Zealand entomologist, Mr B. B. Given, a senior principal scientific officer at the Entomology Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Nelson, has been investigating the fly problem in the Cook Islands. Mr Given, who was in Christchurch this week, spent most of his time on Rarotonga, but he also visited Mauke. * Mr Given’s visit was the outcome of a request for help in eliminating or reducing the fly problem, received by the Island Territories Department from the Department of Health ta the Cook Islands administration Mr Given said that the flies were considered a health problem in that they spread intestinal disorders which amounted to almost a chronic condition in some people.

The flies were the common house fly, well-known In New Zealand, and the bush fly. The bush fly was accustomed to much higher temperatures and while it was not so prolific as the house

fly on Rarotonga it constituted most of the fly populations on islands further north In contrast to the house fly, which was usually common indoors frequenting places where food was prepared and stored, the bush fly was only a nuisance out of doors. Where a person had 500 or 600 of these flies on his back out of doors, nearly every one would leave him if he went indoors.

On Rarotonga, hj said, most house flies bad been found to be breeding in the municipal rubbish dump and in personal rubbish pita behind native houses. Lt had been found that the fly population could be practically eliminated from the rubbish dump by weekly incineration and treatment with chloride of lime. The solution of the problem on a personal basis in the villages would depend on frequent inspections and hygienic education, he said. Incineration of as much rubbish as possible was being attempted on Rarotonga, he said, but at present there were not enough incinerators to handle all the vegetable rubbish. Fertility Builder Unfortunately, with badly leached soils, the islanders could not afford to burn too much organic matter, which was required for fertility building, and ultimately a method of composting might be preferable to incineration. Mr Given said that the bush fly bred almost entirely on faecal material and the solution of the problem which it constituted was straight forward. The good construction of latrines was the first essential to keep the fly out of human faeces In the second place the rearing of pigs would probably have to be completely changed on the outer islands Pig pens were invariably a breeding ground. The change would have to be to tethering of pigs as no flies were bred at all under this system.

In future it might be possible to use chemical sterilisation of flies—possibly both of female and male—to combat the problem, he said. On Mauke, where Mr Given spent a day, he said it was difficult to And a solitary fly. After a dry spell the flies had apparently virtually ceased breeding.