THE EARWIG.

Otago Witness, Issue 3853, 17 January 1928, Page 75

THE EARWIG.

ORCHARDISTS' BANE.

STEPS FOR ERADICATION.

Once upon a time, perhaps 50 years ago (it may be more, but is probably less), there arrived in New Zealand from the Old Country at least one Mr and Mrs Earwig. Although travelling without tickets or passports (says the Wellington Post), they were assisted immigrants in as much as sustenance during the long voyage was provided for them by the plants or packing with which they travelled. Exactly when, how, or where they landed history does not relate, but it is obvious that they dodged the immigration and Customs authorities and came ashore to be added to the long list of imported pests like blackberry and rabbits. Certainly they found New Zealand to their liking, and the ladies of the party soon got to work, each laying from 10 to 15 eggs, which, both before and after hatching, were watched over with tender maternal solicitude and with even more fuss than a hen makes over her chickens. And thus, perhaps, in more than one locality, was laid the foundation of a race of earwigs in New Zealand which has spread far and wide and which is already a real nuisance.

The gardener may call the earwig a nuisance, but the orchardist calls it something very much stronger than that. The ravages that the earwig may do amongst dahlias is of but slight importance compared with the economic aspect of its presence in the orchard. There, amongst the stone fruit, the earwig does the greatest damage, lodging in and feeding on the fruit to such an extent that the annual loss caused by its ravages runs into a large total. Otago is perhaps the district most affected at present by this little pest, but in many other parts of the Dominion the earwig seems quite willing to take possession. The Department of Agriculture is fully alive to the serious menace of the earwig, but the question of keeping this pest under control rests largely with orchardists themselves. The comparatively simple habits of earwigs make their capture easy. They tend to avoid the light and to seek shelter in any convenient crevice or under stones, pieces of wood, or sacking. In places like these, especially if at all damp, the earwig is very much at home and delights in living and breeding. The first step m control, therefore, is not to provide such lodgings. The second is to utilise this penchant of the earwig as a means for its cywn destruction. Inverted flower pots stuffed with hay or straw, or even balls of newspaper, earwigs look upon as most desirous tenements and will enter them by the hundred after their nocturnal expeditions in the search for decaying vegetable and animal matter. In the morning when they are snugly in bed it is easy to collect them and despatch them to the place where all insects, good or bad, go when the v have finished their earthly career. By trapping and by as far as possible not providing suitable breeding grounds, individual orchardpts and gardeners can do a great deal to keep this pest in check. Some people, however, seem to think that the Agricultural Department of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Kesearch should be able with one wave of a magic wand to eradicate totally the earwig. They want an enemy parasite introduced, one that, figuratively speaking, will in u single night destroy every earwig once and for all. This is quite a pleasant dream, but quite impracticable, .for parasites are only auxiliaries to control, there being as a matter of fact very few cases of absolute control by the introduction of a natural enemy or parasite. The problem is being tackled by experts, and in the United States, where the earwig is also a serious menace, there is a special laboratory dealing with the question of eradication. The results of the experiments are being followed with interest by workers in the same direction in New Zealand, and an interchange of observations and discoveries may lead to some practical method of control, but no system of control can be effective without the co-operation of orchardists and gardeners themselves. When the unheralded and unwanted European earwig first landed in New Zealand it found two native species already living here. These are larger than the _ overseas cousins, and are wingless. Their location is confined as a rule to sea beaches, and they do not seem to cause any trouble. With the pincer-like organ at the tail end the earwig, both native and imported, looks more dangerous to handle than it really is. This “ business end ” of its anatomy is used for intimidation and sometimes in defence, but at the most it can inflict only a slight nip. Why “ earwig ” nobody knows. In many languages its name has reference to the idea that the insect has a habit of entering or piercing the ear of sleepers or of anyone reclining on the ground. But this supposed habit has no foundation in fact. On occasions an earwig might seek shelter in the human ear just as it will in any convenient crevice or hole, but as a matter of fact it is far less likelv to find its way into the human' ear (and if it.did it would probably do no harm, only tickling until syringed out again) than a mosquito which has strayed out of its course.

Judge;- “Are you married?” Accused: “ No, but if you have any daughter I will have a look at her.” —Buen Humor, Madrid.