EARWIGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18566, 26 November 1923, Page 6

EARWIGS.

Sir,—Referring to the consignment of earwigs this means another source of trouble in a few years, not only to fruitgrowers but to others. It will be another case of the blackberry and the gorse and the little rabbit, and as big a pest as any of them. I have had some experience of those insects in England in fruit and in flowers and vegetable plants. They cost me pounds for destruction. I was very pleased when I came to New Zealand and found that they had not £;°t the same sort of earwig. One of my sisters lose her first, son through an earwig getting in the ear and getting to the brain. It is a dangerous insect where infants are concerned. It gets 111 the nose and ears for warmth while the children are asleep in a cot or cradle. In the orchards the earwig will eat lits way into the heart of an apple or a pear, plum or peach, and destroy the fruit. If it gets to a glasshouse or anything of that sort it will soon cause trouble with grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and all small plants of flowers in the young stage. In summer it will get into the heart of ehrysanthenr -vs, dahlias, asters and that class of flower. Then the t .:-wig j s soon taken into the house and once it gets there it wants a lot of removing, therefore the sooner people realise the danger the better. G. H. Walton. iistley Avenue, New Lynn.