CATERPILLAR PEST.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14344, 17 January 1911, Page 2

CATERPILLAR PEST.

HOW THEY GO TO WORK.

It was stated a few days ago (writes a correspondent) that thcro wore millions of caterpillars at work in tho ciops in the Cave district. Inquiry shows that tho insects arc' still at work, and in some cases are doing considerable damage. The caterpillars were first reported to bo in numbers in Mr Low's crop, but they can be found in most of tho farmers' crops about the district. Mr Low first noticed them about a week ago, when tnty were crossing a road into his property and were moving in au almost clcuso mass, extending ovor a broadtti ot about three chains. The caterpillars average about an inch in length, lliey climb up tho wheat stalk to the head. Somotimes thoy cat tho top. of tho chaff which encloses tho grain. At other times they eat through ' the straw just below the hoad, allowing the head to fall to tho ground. They can be seen in twos and threes climbing up some grain stalks, but what damage they do after most of their climbs cannot be seon. They appear to go through a grain, crop while it is in. its green stage within about a week of being ripo. The damago they do in wheat is nothing compared to what they do in oats. After climbing the oat straw, they attack the branchlets which carry the oats, and the ground looks aR if "the grain had been threshed by a strong wind. Tho caterpillars also attack cocksfoot and timothy, and do deadly damage to the latter, in most cases eating every seed out of its head. Mr Low states that he noticed tho visitors about last year, but they have appeared this year in greatly increased numbers. / Onr correspondent forwards some specimens of wheat, oats, cocksfoot, and timothy heads that have been visited bv the caterpillars. The wk«at has lost "a few grains from the lower part of the head; the oats show; branchlets cut; the cocksfoot treated somewhat like the wheat; while the timothy heads are stripped quite bare and reduced to spindly straws. Timcthv seed is well defended by a prickly chaff, '.and one of the heads sent, or.!y r.artlv stripped, shows that the caterpillar has to make its way gradually through the defence, and once through works' upwards and around the stalk beneath the level of the defence.