DESTROYING BURR ON BIDI-BIDI

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 92, 13 January 1936, Page 8

DESTROYING BURR ON BIDI-BIDI

Chile Insect Parasites

CAWTHRON SCIENTIST’S

EXPEDITION

By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, January 12.

Before long a determined effort will be made in various parts of New Zealand- to destroy the burr on bidi-bidi with insect parasites. A passenger by the lonic, which arrived at Auckland to-day from London, via Panama, was Dr. D. Miller, assistant director and chief entomologist at the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, who has just spent several months in Southern Chile collecting parasites. Thirty thousand insects of the Chilean saw fly species will be landed from the lonic. Dr. Miller said he had originally found this species of insect during a visit to Southern Chile five years ago He bad brought specimens back to the Dominion with him and so successful were experiments with them that be had returned to Chile to obtain a large number of insects and to make arrangements for constant supplies for New Zealand. The expedition had been sponsored by a group of farmers in the Wanganui district and by the Cawthron Institute. On his arrival in Southern Chile he had found the country had just experienced an abnormally wet and bitterly cold season, with the result that he had had great difficulty in locating the insects. Later, however, he had been very successful in finding places where the insect grubs were plentiful. Woolgrowers Interested.

Much of the success of the expedition was due to help he had received from the British consular service, especially from Mr. G. Caistor, vice-con-sul of Southern Chile. The insects Mr. Miller has procured lay their eggs in the leaves of the bidi-bidi. The grubs that hatch from the eggs feed on the leaves and flowers of bidi-bidi, keeping it under control. Owing to the damage bidi-bidi causes to the wool the results of the liberation of these insects, it is stated, will be watched with great interest by the woolgrowers of the Dominion.