WAR ON BIDI-BIDI

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 10, 13 January 1936, Page 6

WAR ON BIDI-BIDI

DR. DAVID MILLER RETURNS <5 30,000 PARASITES FOUND. > RESULT OF MISSION TO CHILE. [ Per Frees Association. ] , AUCKLAND, Jan. 12 Before long a determined effort will be made in various parts of New Zea-

land to destroy the burr or bidi-bidi with insect parasites. A passenger by the lonic, which arrived at Auckland to-day from London, via Panama, was Dr. D. Miller, assistant director and chief entomologist at the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, who has just spent several months in Southern Chile collecting parasites. Thirty thousand insects of the Chilean saw fly species will be landed from the lonic. Dr. Miller said that he had originally found this species of insect during a visit to Southern Chile five years ago. He had brought the specimens back to the Dominion with him. and so successful were experiments with them that he had returned to Chile to obtain a large number of insects and make arrangements for constant supplies for New Zealand. The exhibition had been sponsored by a group of fanners in the Wanganui district and by the Cawthron Institute. A On his arrival in Southern Chile he had found that the country had just experienced an abnormally wet and bitterly cold season, with a result that he had great difficulty in locating insects. Later, however, he had been very successful in locating places where insects grubs were plentiful. Much of the success of the expedition was due to the help he had received from the British Consular Service, especially from Mr. G. Caistor, Vice-Consul of Southern Chile. The insects Dr. Aliller has procured lay their eggs in leaves of the bidibidi. The grubs that hatch from the eggs feed on the leaves and the flowers of the bidi-bidi, keeping it under control. Owing to the damage bidi-bidi causes to wool the results of the liberation of these insects, it is stated, will be watched with great interest by woolgrowers in the Dominion.