WAR WITH PRICKLY PEAR.
HOPEFUL RESULTS. UTILISATION OP INSECTS. SUCCESS WITH A CATERPILLAR. (United Press Association). (Received August 2. 12.50 p.m.) BRISBANE, August 2. The Government's efforts to cope with the prickly pear pest by utilising the services oX the cochineal insect and catablastrus caterpillar are being attended with hopeful results. In February, 192 G, twenty thousand eggs of the calablaslus moth were imported and placed on leaves of the pear at Emerald. These hatched well and now millions of caterpillars have spread themselves over an area exceeding a radius of two miles from the place of release, and within that area' there are evident signs of the destruction of the pest. The caterpillar does its work thoroughly, and never leaves its clump of pear till it has reduced it to a mass of librc which can easily be destroyed by fire.
The insect also leaves behind it a substance which has a poisonous effect on the pear, preventing Us re-growth and which it is hoped, may be utilised as a basis for a serum from which a cheap spray for destroying the pest en a large scale may be obtained. The caterpillar is proving more effective than the cochineal, insect. The former does as much destruction in a day as the latter does in a month.
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Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17168, 2 August 1927, Page 8
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217WAR WITH PRICKLY PEAR. Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17168, 2 August 1927, Page 8
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