CONTROL OF PESTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18942, 13 February 1925, Page 11

CONTROL OF PESTS.

MEALY BUG PARASITES, FIRST SUPPLIES IN AUCKLAND. Tho mealy bug is a pest to grape growers, greenhouse men and others, and of late years it has attacked the apple and pear, and, in tho south, holly hedges. A species of ladybird with the name Cryptolaemeus Montsoimeri, has been imported, to act as a parasite on tho mealy bugs, and these are being multiplied at the State Biological Laboratory, at Kelbuvn, Wellington, whence supplies will be distributed to those willing to care for them, and liberate them where thero is an abundance of the mealy bug. Tt. is not known yet whether these ladybirds will winter sucessfully. If not, the only way will be for the_ fruit growers or the department to establish an insectarium where they can winter safely and be bred for liberation each spring. The method adopted is simple. A glass-sided cage with wire gauze in the ends is procured, and into this a quantity of the Cryptolaemeus is placed. For the sustenance of the parasites a supply of mealy bugs is bred on potato shoots, started in the dark. On his return from Wellington last week Mr. George A. Green, secretary of tho Institute of Horticulture, brought up from the iusectarium a quantity of the ladvbirds whieh had been given by Mr. David Miller. The insects have been liberated in various parts of the city and suburbs, and a further supply has been requested. While in captivity in Auckland, they were fed for several days on that scale which is so destructive to the cabbage trees around the city, and on these they fed with avidity. Last week, Mr. T. D; Lcnnie, president of the. association of nurserymen, took ft consignment to Invercargill, where they have been liberated on somo holly hedges, which have been attacked with the mealy bug.