EARWIGS.
A FRUIT PEST AND ITS
DESTRUCTION
The statement that a parcel of specimens of live earwigs was brought from England by the Ruahine a few days ago will no doubt cause some surprise and Wonder. An explanation of the reason for the importation of this insect is furnished by the Government Entomologist, Mr Davil Miller. “Apparently the idea has arisen,” he said, “from the cabled report that earwigs were being sent out to New Zealand to destroy insect pests. This is, of course, quite erroneous, the facts of the case being that the earwig in New Zealand is a very serious pest itself, attacking garden plants, vegetables, and, on a larger scale, the fruit of fruit-trees. The earwigs that are being sent out from the Old Country are earwigs which have been ‘parasitised’—‘that is to say, earwigs which are infected with an insect which destroys the earwig itself. The parasite infecting these earwigs will be liberated in New Zealand and it is hoped that they will attack and control the earwig pest in this country. This particular work of introducing the earwig parasite is being carried out by the Cawthorn Institute, at Nelson.”
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAIPO19231215.2.39
Bibliographic details
Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1440, 15 December 1923, Page 6
Word Count
194EARWIGS. Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1440, 15 December 1923, Page 6
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Waipa Post. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in