QUEENSLAND FRUIT FLY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 12001, 19 October 1906, Page 7

QUEENSLAND FRUIT FLY.

A Destructive Pest. Infected Fruit Seised at Christchurch. ___ > (Per United Press Association). CHRISTCHURCH, October 19. Yesterday Mr. J. C. Blackmore, Government Pomologist, seized a quantity of Island oranges which had been shipped to Christchurch, and which was infested with the Queensland fruit fly. The fruit waa part ot a shipment which arrived from Auckland recently, and was there found infested with fly. The oranges were picked over with the idea of eliminating the affected ones, and the cases sent to Christchurch were supposed to be Bound. In some instances, however, Mr. Blackmore found that 30 to 40 per cent, of the fruit contained the larvae of the fly. The insect is one of the most dangerous and destructive of soft fruit pests, and its distribution in the colony is viewed with the keenest anxiety by orchardists. According to Mr. Blackmore, the pest manifests its presence in fruit by a small spot. If the skin is cut away round this spot, the grub of the insect is found in the flesh, and after it has been alive in the fruit for a short time the whole mass becomes corrupt. The pest is extremely difficult to eradicate, and il it gets a hold in a norchard it is almost impossible to produce any fruit at all.