WIPING OUT A PEST
PRICKLY PEAR MENACE
THE CATABLASTUS MOTH
REMARKABLE RESULTS
(United Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 2nd August, 1 p.m.)
BEISBANE, This Day. The Government's efforts to cope with the prickly pear pest by utilising the services of the cochineal insect and the catablastus caterpillar are being attended by hopeful results.
In February, 1926, 20,000 eggs of the catablastus moth were imported and placed on the leaves of pear at Emerald. These hatched well, and now millions oi caterpillars have spread themselves over the area exceeding a radius of two miles from the place of release, and within that area there are evident signs of their destruction.
The caterpillar does its work thoroughly. It never leaves a clump of pear till it reduces it to a raass of fibre. The insect also leaves behind it a substance which has a poisonous effect on pear, preventing its re-growth, and which, it is hoped, may be utilised as the basis of a serum with which a cheap spray for destroying the pest on a large scale may be obtained.
_ The caterpillar is proving more effective than the cochineal insect. The former does as much destruction in a day as the latter does in a month.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 28, 2 August 1927, Page 9
Word Count
203WIPING OUT A PEST Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 28, 2 August 1927, Page 9
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