PINE TREE PEST

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1930, Page 7

PINE TREE PEST

. BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH. LIBERATION OF ENEMIES. The statement that an imported pine tree pest, commonly known as the Oregon saw fly, was spreading in New Zealand, was referred to by Mr. N. G. Gribble, a member of the Forest Biological Research Committee, who said the pest was apparently identical with the sirex or horntail borer which attacks pine trees and larch in New Zealand. In reply to a statement made recently to the effect that the pest had no known natural eneniy in the Dominion, Mr. Gribble said that the research station of the Forest Biological Research Committee had been working on remedies for the pest during the past two years, and had already imported and liberated a natural enemy, the rhyssa persuasoria. It was hoped to liberate further numbers of the parasite during the coming season, and also to commence work with another insect, ibalia leucospoides, which would counteract any danger of general infection. It was reported recently that a number of pine trees had been killed by the pest at Okoia last year, and that the male of the species had been forwarded to the Wanganui Museum from Waverely. The curator of the Wanganui Museum, Mr. G. She; herd, a prominent authority on insect study, recently stated that if the pest become numerous it was bound to ao a certain amount of damage. There were seevral birds in the older countries which were enemies of the pest, but in New Zealand he did not know of any. It would seem that the pest was becoming fairly widespread judging by the localities from which the specimens came.