CONTROLLING PESTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 224, 21 August 1935, Page 6

CONTROLLING PESTS

The departure for South America of Dr. David Miller, assist-ant-director and chief entomologist of the (Jawthron institute, m quest of live specimens of insects which attack piri-piri and the g'rass grub, focusses attention upon a work which is carried on extensively throughout the British Empire—the insect control of pests, it has been estimated that the weed piri-piri costs the New Zealand wool trade a quarter of a million pounds a year, and the Meat and Dairy Boards, the farmers’ Union, and a group of Wanganui farmers have contributed to the cost of Dr. Miller’s expedition, which will also extend to a search for other insects of a useful nature. To keep his creatures alive during- the journey through the tropics Dr. Miller has adopted special measures which lie hopes will prove efficient. The record of the Farnhani House Laboratory, which supplies to other countries insects for the eradication or control of pests, makes very interesting reading. The science or art of breeding parasites to prey on insect pests is not yet 4U years old. Tiie Australian ladybird was first introduced into California to destroy a scale on fruit trees in the nineties of last century. To-day, the economic use of parasitology is world-wide. At Farnham House GO,OUL) parasites are catalogued with full information about their habits, hosts, and the countries where they are found. From this source have come the parasites which have been imported by the Plant liesearch Station at Palmerston North to wage war on the white butterfly which, unknown a few years ago, is to-day a very serious pest, though there is evidence of a gratifying measure of control through the agency of the parasite. The Empire, it is interesting to note, has many pests—insect, feathered, and plant—which are a costly proposition. As an example locusts cost the Empire millions of pounds annually, and South Africa spends £2,000,000 each year in fighting them. The sparrow, starling, and German owl are examples of feathered pests in this country; blackberry, gorse, and ragwort among plants, apart from the piri-piri, and the white butterfly, diamondbacked moth, and the grass grub among insects. Next month the Imperial Entomological Conference will be held in London, and will attract the interest of people towards a work that warrants the fullest support of Governments for the beneficial results it is rendering towards the economic welfare of Empire countries.