THE KEROSENE REMEDY FOR FRUIT FLY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1831, 10 April 1907, Page 51

THE KEROSENE REMEDY FOR FRUIT FLY

The kerosene remedy referred to in the intervieAV with Mr Compere consists in Ranging in the brandies of the orchard trees shallow vessels, such as cut-doAvn kerosene tins with about four inches of Avater in each and on the surface of this a skin of kerosene. Mr iS. B. Devenisli, of Guildford, who first brought this method of capturing the enemy before the public, writes in the same issue of the “"Western Mail” of its continued success in his own orchard. In the previous week hi 3 vessels had captured over 2000 fruit flies, as well as innumerable other hurtful insects; and he adds:— “Since giving publicity through the Press to the result of my first experiment, and which, I am pleased to say, has led to its being used by many people, I have also asked numbers of people with Avhom I come in contact to gi-vta it a trial. One person informed me that though at first rather sceptical as to its effectiveness, he tried it in a pear tree, the fruit of which last year Avas totally destroyed by the ravages of the pest. The result, however, has quite convinced him, inasmuch as he caught a great number of ■‘■be fly, and upon gathering the fruit he found only tAvo pears out of the whole crop Avere affected. I Avould like you to give publicity to this fact, which speaks for itself, and I feel confident that if a general effort on the part of the fruit-growers were made with this veiy simple method of catching and destroying the fly it would at least greatly minimise the destruction wrought by these terrible insects. I may say that I find it necessary to renoAV the oil about every three days, as the smell, AAihioh undoubtedly is the attraction, goes off after that. I also find that a clean, bright tin is far more effective than a rusty one.”

What about the codlm-mctn parasite in California?

“It is doing splendidly. If Mr Allen, the so-called fruit expert of New South Wales, when in California recently, had gone to the State Commissioner of Horticulture, or any of his deputies in the parasite work, they could, and would within a few minutes’ time, have taken him to orchards v'here he "would have practical demonstration of the work of the codlin-moth parasites. Instead of applying to the department he interviewed a Mr Woodworth, of the Californian University—a man who probably would not know a parasite if he saw it—who told him he knew of no place in California \ here the codlin-moth parasite was doing any good w r ork.” What do you purpose doing with regard to the introduction of the fruitfly parasite into this State? “Well, I must go off to India in June. Further than that, the department should send somebody along v ith me to bring the parasites back—• somebody able to look after them on the voyage and see that they do not issue before they are required. Even now, Mr (Newman is experimenting with a view to learning how long we can hold the fruit-fly eggs back in cider that they might be hatched when the next lot of parasites arrive.” How do you regard the kerosene remedy for fruit-fly? “It is a remarkable discovery, and if as it appears, the kerosene really attracts the flies, it holds wonderful potentialities. There is room for numberless remedies against the fruit-fly, for it is undoubtedly the worst pest the local orchardists have to contend against. The Brazilian beetle (staphknedae), liberated last year in an infested orchard in Perth, has apparently disappeared from that particular enclosure. However, that alone is not sufficient to show that the beetle has not succeeded in establishing itself, for it is a flying insect, and may yet be found in numbers in some adjacent orchards.”