THE BOLL WEEVIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22779, 15 January 1936, Page 8

THE BOLL WEEVIL

WORLD ENEMY NUMBER ONE He first came into the public eye in Vera Cruz in 1843; 40 years later, after laying Cuba in ruins, he crossed the Mexican border and moved steadily eastwards, doing millions of pounds worth of damage as ho went. The whole civilised world has tried to kill him off But he goes on defying poison gases and modern scientific warfare. devastating whole cotton-growing States, and increasing in strength. He has now reached Australia, looking for fresh fields to conciucr. His alias on the crime sheets is 801 l Weevil, states H H. Johnston in Tit Bits. G. Morsitans and S. Fasciata arc the world’s most appalling murderers. Between them they have been responsible for more than half of the human death rate. They have mown down whole armies, wiped out empires and civilisations, and caused untold damage. In one year alone—in 1021—they killed I, people in India. Of course, yon ask: Why let this terror go on? Can’t something be done about it?

The truth is that if we spend as much money and ingenuity on waging war on our insect enemies as we do against each other, a different story might bo told. Still, thanks to a growing enlightment, the forces in our daily battle against the insect warriors arc growing. A council of war, representing the British Empire, was recently held in London, and the members of this cabinet came from some of the loneliest outposts of civilisation.

I went to see the Chief of Staff for the British Empire—Sir Guy Marshall, brilliant director of the Imperial Institute of Entomology. The G.H.Q. of this strangest and most difficult of wars mankind has ever been called upon to wage is in a quiet room in the cloistered basement of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London. Most of us have the idea that the man who hides his identity under the terribly academic name of “ entomologist” is just another of those professorial cranks who run around with butterfly nets, glue paper, and empty jam jars, and impale insects at the end of pins and write underneath them Latin tags that look like laryngitis. Actually, the practical entomologist of to-day is the expert scientist who is making it possible for man and beast and agricultural crop to thrive the world over. Witliout his aid, and that of some birds and parasites which are anti-pests, the insects would sweep us right out of existence. They, represent 60 per cent, of all living things; and it is estimated that greenfly, and other common or garden nuisances, if allowed to have their own way, could destroy the world’s vegetation in six months 1 “ The Imperial Institute of Entomology,” Sir Guy Marshall told me, “is really a bureau for practical work Here, every week, we receive some 2000 letters and specimens and requests for advice. All the information gathered is issued and indexed in our quarterly report, which is, in effect, the ‘ Bible ’ of the man in the field or bush. If he comes across a new pest which is eating his crop or killing his stock, and he cannot find its description, ho sends a specimen for us to identify.” Sir Guy Marshall swept his hand towards a long table filled with all manner of little boxes made of white wood, or cardboard, or cigar boxes with labels on them. Each contained some deadly and costly insect to be reported upon and a line of attack mapped out. “ Frequently the importation of a parasite will rid a countryside of the post. In five years we have sent over 7,500,000 parasites abroad. “ Research work on the spot is invaluable, but lack of money prevents much of that work being extended. We are now completing a five years’ test in the locust lands. Our export in the Sudan came upon the beginning of a locust swarm, and he sent to Khartoum for aid. The swarm was destroyed; the damage thus saved is incalculable. That is what entomology does.”