GRASS GRUB MENACE

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18697, 25 July 1932, Page 12

GRASS GRUB MENACE

DESTRUCTION BY PARASITE. EXPERIMENTS NEXT SPRING. High hopes that a parasite now In the cocoon stage at the Cawthron Institute will he able to deal effectively with the grass 'grub which Is menacing the pastures of the Hauraki Plains and of some other parts of New Zealand are held by the Entomological Department of the institute. It was stated recently that, so far as the Agricultural Department was aware, the institute had not been successful in finding a parasite which would attack the grass grub. It is learned, however, that Dr. D. Miller, chief of the institute’s Entomological Department, when on an expedition to Chile for the purpose of studying insects attacking piri-piri* (bidi-bidi), on behalf of the Empire Marketing Board and the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board, found that the Chilean grass grubs were attacked by a group of parasites. The importance of this was immediately recognised, and researches into these parasites were commenced. As a result, one species was selected as the most suitable for New Zealand’s purposes, and a supply in the cocoon stage is now being kept under observation at the Cawthron Institute.

“The adult insects should emerge from these cocoons- in the spring, when a common cement will be made to establish the parasite upon the Now Zealand grass grub,’’ Dr Miller states. “There is considerable hope of success In this undertaking, since the parasite belongs to a group of insects not present in New Zealand, while the conditions under which the parasite exists in Chile are very similar to those in New Zealand."