BUTTERFLY PARASITES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18587, 22 December 1934, Page 5

BUTTERFLY PARASITES

GISBORNE SUPPLIES

LIBERATION YESTERDAY

UNEMPLOYED GARDENS

The first of the season’s white butterfly parasites to arrive in Gisborne were received yesterday by the instructor in agriculture, Mr. M. A. Black, and liberated in the unemployed vegetable gardens. . A total of 1100 parasites comprised the consignment, and they were full of vim when let loose, all apparently being in excellent condition. .... The type of parasite which is being tried in the Gisborne district this season is the pteromalus puparuin, which lays its eggs in the chrysalis and prevents hatching. This is the variety which has given such excellent results in Hawke’s Bay, and so pleased is the research station on the success in that province that it has been decided to concentrate the main attack on the butterfly by the aid of these parasites.

MORE IN JANUARY

The apanteles glomeratus, the parasite liberated at Whatatutu, Puha, Otoko, Matawai and Waerenga-o-fcuri last summer, has not been giving such quick results, but it might not be any the less effective in the long run than the typo now being extensively used. The apanteles glomeratus attacks the pest in the caterpillar stage. The parasites liberated yesterday comprise the first batch of several more expected to arrive in the Gisborne district during the summer. Yesterday’s parcel was designed to assist the growth of cabbages in the unemployed gardens, and from these points to spread to the remainder of the town area and gradually over the flats. Half of the parcel was liberated at Roebuck road and the other half on the Score point reserve. The other consignments for the Gisborne district are expected to arrive about the middle of January, by which time cruciferous crops in the areas selected should he at the most suitable stage. VALUE OF BIRDS

At this stage it may be pointed out thatf the Department of) Agriculture does not claim that the parasites will nffoct an immediate remedy. They will take some time to become established, and, if the Hawke’s Bay results are to be taken ms a standard, they should bo particularly effective in the season or two following liberation. It has been found that birds play a big part m keeping down insect pests, and by encouraging birds the butterfly menace might be reduced in the’ caterpillar stage. Having heard .that thrushes were partial to white butterfly, a New Plymouth man with a crop of good, cabbages . which lie preferred •to have for his own purposes, has expanded the idea and enlisted the. birds near his homp in the war against the butterfly. Sparrows and other bird scavengers of civjlisation abeuncf near his homo, to the gardener conceived the idea of throwing the spare breadcrumbs and scraps, not upon an open space but into the cabbage patch. That practice has become regular and the sparrows now give return for their rations by pausing in their search for breadcrumbs to pick up grubs and other evidences of the butterfly from the cabbages. The. result is that a fine crop of cabbages is still flourishing, whereas in other cabbage patches, although the butterfly is not yet at its worst period, damage is already evident.