ORCHARD PESTS.

Colonist, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11763, 20 October 1906, Page 4

ORCHARD PESTS.

Christchurch, October 19. Yesterday, Mr J. C. Blackmore, Government Pomologist, seized a quantity of Island oranges that had been shipped to Christchurch, as infected by the Queensland fruit fly. The fruit is part of a shipment which arrived at Auckland recently and was there found to be infested with the fly. The oranges were picked over with the idea of eliminating the affected ones, and the cases were sent to Christchurch supposed to be sound. In some instances, however, Mr Blackmore found that 30 tn 40 I per cent of the fruit contained the | larvae of the fly. The insect is one of the most dangerous and destructive of soft-fruit pests, and the distribution in the colony is viewed with the keenest anxiety by orchardists. According to Mr Blackmore, the pest manifests its presence in fruit by a small spot. If the skin be cut r.svay round this spot the grub of too insect will bo found in the flesh, and after it has been alive in the fruit for a short time, the whole mass of fruit becomes corrupt. The | pest i 3 extremely difficult to eradicate, and if it gets hold in an orchard it is almost impossible to produce any fruit at all.