New Insect Pest

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 235, 5 October 1936, Page 8

New Insect Pest

PEARS IN CANTERBURY WHEAT SAMPLES AFFECTED CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 29. Fear 3 that another insect pest may have invaded the Dominion exist today in the mind of some New Zealand scientists. There is evidence in Otago of a condition in some of the wheat harvested last autumn which is analogous to that obtaining in the case of depredations by the wheat bug, an insect which has taken heavy toll of European whcatfields. The situation is being closoly watched, but it will be impossible to determine the question before next harvest. Mr H. E. West, consultant and technical adviser to a group of New Zealand Hour mills, said to-day that early in May' three samples of wheat, among others, arrived at his laboratory for baking quality tests. These wheats were milled in the usual fashion and doughs were made from tho resultant flours. During tho process of fermentation all three samples acted in a very abnormal manner. Instead of rising, * the doughs went soft and sticky and one, in fact, become so “runny” that it was capable of being poured out of tho fermentation pan like thick syrup. The conclusion first arrived at was that the wheat samples must have been badly sprouted. However, a close examination of part of £he original samples showed that all had been harvested before the rains, and were quite free from any sprout damage, Subsequent tests also proved that in this respect the grains were absolutely sound. The only peculiarity noted al?out the samples was that in many of the grains there were tiny opaque spots, easily discernible in clear-skinned grains, but almost impossible to notice on more mature and winter grains. Mr West is concerned lest the wheat bug, which attacks the kernel in the milk ripe stage, depositing a substance which so disintegrates the gluten that the flour is unfit for baking. He- does not say positively that tho wheat which reacted so unusually was in fact spoiled by bugs, but he does think that the behaviour of tho flour and the appearance of the grains so exactly tally with the descriptions of wheat damaged by the bug that there is a basis for serious investigation.