ROOT BORER

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17835, 7 October 1929, Page 2

ROOT BORER

PEST FOR ORCHARDISTS. CALAMITY IN AUSTRALIA. Orchardists in the Windsor district j will be faced witli a. serious calamity! if the insidious root borer, which is | at present attacking citrus trees, is j allowed to spread, says a Sydney j paper. In one orchard alone as many as j 40,000 beetles have already been col- \ lected this year. Each of these repre- ■ sents a root-eating grub, and as 33 ! per cent at least are female, capable ' of laying up to 90 eggs, the importance of destroying them is apparent. The pest is not migatorv, its spread being accidental. In all probability, floods, depositing debris,in the form of wattle trees, etc., in the orchards, have been responsible for its incidence ! on river lands. The discovery of the : pest is in time to save many thousands of trees from complete destruction. The only effective treatment known i so far is the use of traps or bandages ! ■of ostlco, and the collodion of tin: j beetles as often as possible. The j effect of thp borers’ attack on the ' roots is seen in unthriftiness of the i ■foliage, followed by curling and dying of the leaves, and subsequently by the j dying of a big 'proportion of the i twigs. '