The White Pine Beetle.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 18

The White Pine Beetle.

TO THE EDITOR. Sik. — Ap-opos to Mr James Allan's note , in your i=sue of Saturday,' it may be of I interest fb some of yo\ir reader' fo know, ' at anyi-ate, the name and nature of ~tbe • pest. j Some w«eks ago a piece of white pine [ planking infested with an insect was brought to tho "Museum by a cabinet-makoc On investigation it was found that the plank ! was riddled with galleries, in each of which ! some stage in the life hbtoiy of a beetle | was lhing. A piece of this plank, with ! specim-en-s of these stages, is now on ox- | hibition in the Museum, amongst our native i beetles, in the first gallery. The name of | the beetb is Ophryons pallidus- | As the trouble commences before the pine tree is sawn up it is difficult to combat the peat : the grubs which do tha harm, j may live for months or perhaps a year in the wood, gating through it all the time, till it changes into a resting pupa. I regret that I cannot suggest a ch-;ap method of cure, but no doubt the Govern- | ment Biologist will be in a position to do so, I am. ■eic, i W. B. Benham. University Musenra. > TO THE EDITOR SIR, — Re your paragraph in the Times of Saturday. May 5, I am forwarding you a fev\ samples of the borer at work. As you will see by the sample, I 'have left them just as I cut them off the currant bushes, and I may tell you that this is the insect that is doing all the damage to the white pine that you speak of. and I can speak from experience, as I was. before coming to New Zealand, employed on stations in the R-iverinju part of New South Wales, for 10 years, and that district is infested with these borera, which they term, white ants over there. They cannot use white pine over there, in the buildings. In the sample I am sending you the borer seems to me to be a little larger, though, in its habits, just the same as^the borer, or white ant, in New South Wales. If you desire any further details about the borer I would be very glad to refer you to some of the large pastoralists that I have been with, and I think that they „ would be able to give you further information about the borer and its destructive habits, though I may say that on the station where I was employed nothinc was done to stop its ravages further than to replace one board by another. — I am, etc., ' Oamaru. Subscriber. ! TO THE EDITOR. Str. — Some of us have been hoping to notice something in your paper with reference to the subject of borers mentioned by Mr Allen. M.H.R.. and would like to know if they bear any affinity to the white ants of India, so much dreaded there, and if there is any remedy for the evil. — I am, etc., * " HOTTSEKOLDEB. TO THE EDITOB. I Sir.— l see in your issue of the sth a letter from Mr James Allen, re the bcrcr in building's. I do not know its name, but I have falcon notice of it for the last 12 years in Chrifttchureh, Lyttelton. Wellington, and many other places. I have seen houses and furniture completely riddled, and have also seen it in auction rooms. I think something should he done to warn people about it, for I think that is a means of its spreadine. — I am, etc., LoveU'a Flat, May 7. H. TO THK EDITOB. Sir, — The white pine " borer is a small greyish-brown beetle about the size of a coriander seed and the shape of a. ladybird, but ordv half (or even less) it.<- size. I first noticed it in 1885 in the old Wairuna House, that built by Mr Jordon Rich in the fifties. It there ate into all the timber of. the house, and spread its ravages to i the furniture, even inio mahogany. In the o!d houses of Waitahuna Gully its ravages may be seen, many of which houses wore lined with Baltic deal. On one occasion I bought at auction a cedar looking-glass, in which I found the beetle. On bringing it home I staked it with tur- , pentine. winch brought the beetles to the ■ .■>urfaw, and they were found dead at the ] mouth of their holes. It was argued by ' residents of Wairuna into whose houses the beetle had entered, that the destroyer had come from the bush, but this argument would not hold good in Waitahuna. because mo3t of the iiml>er of which the old houses were built was imported. My belief is that the best cure — or. rather, preventive — i« constant and regular painting, especially inside, the first coat being thin flat paint, which would allow the "turps" to soak doeplv into tli-c wood. Schools are j rarely painted inside. — I am, etc.. Upper Junction. May 7. A. M. B. TO THE EDITOR. Sir. — I sf»e in Satuiday's Times an arcicle on the above, and inviting discus- ' sion on tho subject, which has much need to be investigated. a« it is becoming very j serioue. As I have had a long experience among timber I will try and tell what I know about it, with the hope that others who know more will gn<? us their e\- j peri<=nce. with a view to getting a remedy j to stop its ravage*. I fir-t got acquainted I with it in N-el^on when pas-ins through I about 30 voars ago It was then very i bad the - c in the white pine. Soon after ] that thp timber merchant*, began to import laige quant it k*- o f white pino from P-elorus Sound to Ehir.odm. Thr-r-e wa« a current report got about thai thf> " Lout would uol ii\e south of the Kaikoura Mountains,

This vra.3. generally believed and acted oil. and white pine had a ready sale and was used for flooring, lining, and all kinds of joinery work. It got to be vciy fashionable for dadoes and lining walls, it being alternated board about with red pine or kauri. But a number of years proved that the Lover could live and thrive fri Dunedin, and thrive e\-en better in Invercargiil than here. It is very hard to find out its hajpits and what it likes best. I have seen white -pin© nearly 50 years in use and not a -worm to be seen in it. My idea is that it only attacks the white pine grown on swampy ground. What is grown on the ridges is too hard for the borer, or it does not like it. It .is very rare to see one, and some say it js not a worm but a- fly, or both. There is" a little white worm, with a black head, which is found in the sapwood of most Timbers, but it very rarely goes into the heart wood. The ' - borer *' likes to -work in the dark," and leaves a thin skin on «aeh side of the wood. I ha\e observed with a magnifying glass that the few holes we see on the surface do not_ lead into -the . workings, but have a so'.fd wall left 'found them, as if..they were xsed for sleeping chambers. ~Or may be that- it make* these to entice us to apply washes for its destruction, which many do- -without effect/ I -have found r ,nothiri£ of. any avail,, but- out- the "timierwhere he is all out.— l am. etc., I Jas. - M'Gili.

I TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— Having noticed in your last Saturday's issue reference made xc " the white pine borer" by Mr James Alien, M.H.R., and asking your readers for their knowledge of the pest in question, .1 may say that 1 have studied it for some time, and watched its various habits and its paculiar procedure in its gnawing course of destruction. It has a strong affinity or similarity to the " loech " : it bores and excavates and evacuates at the same time, and is never -filled or satisfied. I watched its habits under a powerful microscope of my own design and invention. The microscope is telescopic in shape and form, with five different tangent screws and slides, 15 graduating lenses, and a circular reflector or mirror. I tes'-ed the power of ~my microscope by bringing it to bear in* a sunbeam on t'je heart, eyes, and head of a mosquito. (1) The heart seemed the same ' size as tha( ,of a full-matured guinea pig; (2) the eyes .the same size as small marbles with which children play ; (3) the head— a peculiar piece of machinery, — resembling the head or bulb of the Canadian thistle, with a penetrating trunk or ooulator protruding therefrom. "The pine borer," under my glass, looks like a small auger, tapering at both ends. It is covered with • a rough t>Tey shell, peculiarly formed, rendering it capable of quick contractions and expansion. Its trunk .resembles a jniniature gimlet. The only difference is that .there is in -the -centre •thereof a small throat or channel for swallowing purposes. It lays eggs, -which another insect hatches. Its young are very small, and cannot -be discerned by -_iho natural optic. -' I stood- -a bright-polished steel lancet "in a white pine --boai'd to enable .me to pursue my -investigations into the general habits of- its young. The old ones did not attempt to climb the lancet, but the young ones did, and ran about on it while the old ones watched them, and when the young descended they were severely punished by their parents. I -then placed a small cambric needle, stuck point up, in the pine plank. . The young ran up it, and on its very tip promenaded and performed, going through several figures, | which were very hard to follow. While 1 j thu6 minutely observed, " the lancers," "The Washington Post," and "ladies' chain" came lucidly before my mind's eye as being very much akin to -their performances. When they descended from the. needle they likewise received similar treatment from their waiting parents. Txotwithstandiug, they grow and multiply very rapidly. It is true that they attack all kinds of timber. When the gimlet or trunk of the pest becomes fully developed for white pine, it makes for and attacks harder timbers, and even leaves black spots on the lancet, which certainly, in the course of time, would corrode the instrument. Herein is a lesson in anatomy. Through partaking of soft foods which do not require masticating, human gums are left toothless in early life, hence the rapid ascendency of the dental profession. People do not and cannot realise that a fully developed "pine borer" can work its way through a white pine half-inch plank in half an hour, red pine 38min, bEoadleaf 45min, blue gum Ihr 12min 33sec. ironwood ohr 13mm 45£ sec. The above are the- results, Sir, of my observations. • I have - also discovered a liquid solution, the application of which would save valuable -property-from rapid, though unobserved, destruction. — I * PaoFEBSOB.

am. etc.,