THE BORER.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XVI, Issue 150, 24 April 1914, Page 4

THE BORER.

That- the common borer-bee tic* or to be precise, its larva, is not particular as to what kinds of timber it seeks a living from is avoll known. It thrives as well upon hard and well seasoned jarrah, or ancient mahogany U«s upon the softest of pine woods. All its demands seem to be satisfied with the finding of a trace of starch in the dried up cells of timber of any kind. .Upon such slender and sapless nutriment the "borer" contrives not only to live, but freely to propagate its kind, as many householders have found and are finding to their cost. It seems an almost increditable thing, says the Otago Daily Times, that articles of furniture, after having ministered to the convenience of several human generations, should .still prove to be "good meat" to any animal but the fact is, nevertheless, indubitable. An instance that has been brought under notice proves, howtrer. that ,th« borer is not indifferent to more luxurious fare when this is available. The "exhibit" in this case consists of a small tin of biscuits of the variety known as "digestive." , The tin in'question had been laid away in a workroom cupboard as —in a literary sense—provision for a rainy day I Upon overhauling his store the other day the owner found that every biscuit in his box was more or less riddled with "borer tunnels. At the bottom were a number of the perfect beetles dead, w,hile a good few, all alive, and in evident good health, were disporting themselves among tho pit) vender. As the owner of thio biscuits admits having eaten the quarter parto'f one before he made his discovery his feelings may I>e imagined as none of the most agreeable. It is an old saying that "You can't, eat your cake and have it;" if the present instance points any moral, it is: "If you don't eat your hiscuit the borer may eat it for youl"