UNWELCOME GUESTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4378, 15 January 1941, Page 4

UNWELCOME GUESTS

THE SEASON’S INSECTS. COUNTLESS GARDEN PESTS. Those inevitable but generally unwelcome little heralds of the present season, insects of countless numbers and garden pestS, arrived on the scene in Te Awamutu and district during the recent dry spell and it is hardly likely that the rain experienced last week-end will interfere or minimise their “seasonal activities.” By nearly everyone except the übiquitous amateur gardener and naturalists their appearance has been ignored, but it may be just as well to acknowledge their arrival through the Courier and include them among the well-known visitors to Te Awamutu. The vanguard of the insect community has arrived and from now on there will be, in military parlance, “fresh reinforcements.”

THE CICADAS. Those who have made their presence most obvious so far are the noisy cicadas overheard in many trees, in Victoria Park in particular, can be heard their continual joyful chirping. So would anyone be joyful if he had spent the last four years buried in the ground as these cicadas have been. After their long period underground in the grub stage, they emerge as soon as the weather becomes warm, shed their sheaths and, complete with wings, go up into the trees to get busy with their chirping. Naturally they are busy, for they have only about seven weeks in which to do their chirping. That is all they see of the world before they die.

GRASS GRUB. Not nearly as popular as the cicada, another visitor which has popped up from the ground is the grass grub. They come out of the ground at dusk but instead of harmlessly chirping they spend their time marauding gardens. Being fairly mild, the past winter has been an excellent one for these little creatures while they have been under the ground, and now they are becoming uncomfortably plentiful. The green beetle, too, is now on the wing and, not as particular as some of its cousins, makes war on everything in the plant line.

THE WHITE BUTTERFLY. Then there is that public enemy of the cabbage patch known appropriately as the white butterfly. He had a bad start on the cabbages this season, but with the recent fine spell he has been making up for lost time and is becoming increasingly in evidence. “AND THE REST ”

It has been a good season for ants and now they are most plentiful. There are 22 species of them in New Zealand and most of them seem to be about now. It has been a good season for these insects.

House flies are also coming “into their own” (as they reckon) and swats, sprays and flypapers are in increasing demand. The genus of insects belonging to the order hemiptera and the aphidae, less spectacularly known as aphis, have now appeared on fruit trees and roses and some of theii- relatives will soon be making their homes on the tomatoes and beans.