SHEEP BLOW-FLY

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3181, 24 May 1932, Page 3

SHEEP BLOW-FLY

NEW SPECIFIC REPORTED. In all parts of the world where sheep in large numbers are depastured the blowfly is a costly menace. In Australia the destruction caused by this pest has become a problem of national concern. Countless specifies and devices have been tried to combat the fly, and although some have minimised the trouble it still continues to baffle all attempts to eradicate or control it. Pastoralists are constantly asked to try some new remedies. One leading grazier in New South Wales has already tested more than a dozen specifics, and he is still willing to try others, believing that it will be only by encouraging diligent research and inquiry that the difficulty will be finally overcome. Many other graziers view the problem in the same light Now undergoing exhaustive tests there is for example a specific which promises important results. With this specific, according to reports, a grazier near Cootamundra treated his lambs in September, when the lambs were marked, and he has not suffered a restrike, while on an adjacent property the re-striking of lambs marked at the same time amounted to 90 per cent. Other flock-owners in Riverina have also had equally good results from the same preparation, and it is undergoing official tests at Canberra and on the Condamine Plains in Queensland. For this specific it is claimed by those who have discovered it that it will make sheep immune from the fly for a period approximating six months. It is said to destroy the larvae, it prevents re-striking, it is a non-irritant, is non-poisonous, and does not stain or injure the wool. One gallon of the specific mixed with water will, it is claimed, effectively treat 200 sheep. It, in the field, on an extended scale, the remedy will confirm the tests that some graziers have made with it; and the official reports are satisfactory, there may be in this discovery a valuable means of assisting pastoralists to combat one of their major difficulties.