PLAGUES OF PESTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22716, 31 October 1935, Page 10

PLAGUES OF PESTS

EMUS. CAMELS AND SNAKES EFFECT OF WEATHER CONDITIONS (Feom Otjb Own Cobrespondent) SYDNEY, October 24. Abnormal weather conditions last year and this year have resulted, in three Australian States, in plagues of pests, which are causing intense worry to residents and crop losses to farmers. The abnormal rains of last year are blamed for the plagues of snakes, and, to a minor extent, death adders, now infesting part of Queensland. The rains brought the frogs, it is said, and a fat frog is just too good to be missed by a snake. During this week two men searching for wild flowers at Coolura killed 14 snakes, one six feet long. At Chinchilla, beyond the Darling Downs, the police sergeant and the postmaster, while out shooting, killed two carpet snakes and four death adders within an hour. One of the adders measured two feet. The adders are most prevalent near Chinchilla, where the residents claim, that cactoblastis, in clearing the district of prickly pear, created a new problem by abolishing the refuge of snakes. The snakes now lie in the sand to trap small birds. With only its head and naif an inch of its tail visible, the adder lures the bird with its worm-like tail, striking its victim as the latter approaches to snatch an apparently succulent meal. Another pest in Queensland is the wild camel, in the far west of the State. Herds of them roaming the far west are said to have bred from animals turned out* by Afghan camel drivers. They are damaging fences and polluting waterholes. Because of attacks by the bull camels, stockmen are compelled to shoot on sight. Dry weather has been responsible for depredations by emus in the northeastern wheat belt in Western Australia und in the mallee district of Victoria, near the South Australian border. Droughts have been mainly responsible for failure of wheat crops in the former area, reducing the yield to less than normal, but many crops have been ravaged by huge flocks of emus, which have been driven into the growing areas from the dry interior in search of feed and water. According to an official check, 14,000 birds have been destroyed, but the pest continues. Reports from the Mallee were that emus were roaming in hundreds, having become much more numerous since settlement blocks were abandoned in the New Mallee. They come out of the scrub and trample down crops and eat the grain. Farmers have become so perturbed about the depredations of emus that they are shooting the birds, although it is an offence to do so, because they are protected game.