HISTORY REPEATS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 110, 6 November 1933, Page 9

HISTORY REPEATS

CATERPILLAR PEST

MEMORY OF SIXTIES

"If these caterpillars -are, anythirtg like those wo-had to deal with in 1865, it will take a very severe winter to exterminate them," said . Mr. John Nairn, a retired'farmer, now living in Christchurch,- when discussing the plague of caterpillars^ in the. Ashburton district. "At that time I was working for Messrs. Wright and Murray, where Lincoln College is now, .arid in the late autumn of 18G5 we discovered in a grass paddock a ma.ss of caterpillars an inch and a quarter long and all colours. Unless you saw them you could not imagine what they'lookod like; The movement /of the. mass, was, just like tho-rsca on a\ fairly' calnr day." -. . ■ , At that time the s-od walls were all |new, and in good, condition, said.Mr. Nairn. A gap was made near the top |of the wall so that when the caterpillars climbed through, it they toppled over into the ;ditch oil the other; side and were, drowned. Soon, however, the ditch became, blocked, andit was evident, that ;tho pestswould reach a neighbouring paddock of late barley, nearly ripe. The gap' was .blocked, and the grass paddock was rolled with, the wooden roller, which was used in those, days, until the ground was covered with.' slush. Even this failed; to stop the progress of tho plague, and it completely destroyed the crop1 of barley. Mr. Nairn says he docs not approve of the suggestion to scatter poisoned bran, because it might be dangerous to ■stock.' He says he believes that by driving sheep very slowly over. _ the grubs thoir progress in a certain direction might be checked, but he does not think that this method would be successful in wiping out' the plague. In the attack of 1865 the grubs .were able to shelter in the tussocks during/the winter, and he thinks that the last winter having been mild, they were able to shelter in: the-wealth'of long grass from the previous season. '■ ... .*. "We noticed that whenever there was a cold blast of wind in the evening all the wriggling ceased "temporarily," said Mr. Nairn. "I do not think we shall get rid of these catcr r pillars until we have a very severe winter.?' '. '■' >■'.