NATURE'S BALANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23156, 30 September 1938, Page 19

NATURE'S BALANCE

PESTS AND PARASITES EXPERIENCE IN RHODESIA The disastrous results which may follow the upsetting of Nature's balance by the attempted extermination oi various pests, especially by poisoning, were recently stressed in these columns. Too often the result of these campaigns is that the natural enemies and parasites of the pests are destroyed to a greater extent than the pests themselves, with the result that, in following years, they develop into ail unrestricted plague. I'Yoin Rhodesia comes a report of a similar result from the Government's decree, some years ago, that game in certain northern areas should be slaughtered ;is a measure to check the spread of tsetse fly. Hyenas were not then classed as game. On the other hand they increased rapidly, and, with the loss of their natural food, turned to cattle killing. From their original haunts where wild game once abounded, they have migrated to cattle breeding areas, and it is reported that considerable numbers of grown cattle beasts, as well as calves, are being destroyed or maimed by these pests. Control is made difficult by the cowardly habits of the liveiia.