NEW MENACE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 66, 21 April 1944, Page 5

NEW MENACE

CATERPILLAR PLAGUE

BATTLE TO CHECK PESTS

Following in the wake of the recent flood which inundated l liarge areas of the Rangitaiki Plains has come a plague of caterpillars, which bids fair to cause substantial damage to vitally needed pastures, which in many cases have just been resown, on farms covering a wide area of the plains. Although not the first time that a visitation such as this has occurred) the

damage appears to be more widespread than formerly, as farmers are still recovering from the effects of the floods which

in many cases covered their entire holdings, killing the grass and turning the land into a morasts of brown silt and) mud.

With much of the previously available pasture rendered useless by the sea of water under which it lay in some cases for days on end, and the rest of the paddocks being laid bare by hordes of ravaging caterpillars, the position is becoming increasingly serious, and may result in a major problem for the district.

Apparently the flood was responsible for bringing the caterpillars & carrying deposits of eggs from widely scattered areas into a closely compact mass where the heat caused by the reflection of the sun off the water which was at that time only an inch or so deep, caused them to 'germinate and hatch in record time. The result was that the pest has bred in countless millions swarming over the surrounding countryside in search of food, and rapidly spreading in all directions wherever there is a good supply of grass. Farmers state that although these plagues have occurred before, each successive one is worse than the last and that now the only hope of killing them off before resowing commences is to wait for the; win-

:er frosts,

Paroa and' Thornton Suffer

As far as can be ascertained, the attacks coincided in. the Paroa ami Thornton areas with the subsidence of the flood, and no sooner had the grass in covered areas come away than the caterpillars made their ap-

pearance, streaming across the countryside eating everything, in their path after the style of Eastern plagues of locusts. Farmers who were flood victims and had recently sown substantial areas in new grass had the chagrin of seeing the fresh crop eaten down to earth level overnight, and as a result, many have suffered a second setback, from which, it is stated, it will be impossible. to recover without considerable State assistance. In this matter, the Flood Relief Committee of the Primary Production Council, has petitioned for added supplies of superphosphate with which to dress the pastures in the hope of checking as far as possible, the ravages of the horde.

Many Types Noted'

There are several types of caterpillars at work including the one which attacks the maize, but the

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one predominating is black in colour and approximately three-quart-ers of an inch iong. It first made its appearance at Paroa and Thornton, in a small way about three weeks ago but to-day the havoc created extends north of Edger cumbe and is still spreading on to the mid-plains. The grub is particularly partial to new grass, but will turn its attacks when nothing else is offering on to coarser pastures and even to rushes. It is not uncommon to see a lush stand of grass several inches high devoured down to brown earth in a single night. One farmer on Fortune's Road, Poroporo, Mr George Howard, half ol whose farm was denuded by the stagnant floor waters, was forced to graze his whole herd on the rear of his property which has now been attacked by the caterpillars and eaten almost bare. Many of his neigh-

bours also are in a similar plight. Becoming a Menace i The ravages of this new visitation now extend into properties owned by Mr Andrew McLean some five miles from the first appearance of the grub where considerable, areas had been resown, thus creating a new and more sinister problem for farmers on the Rangitaiki. Apparently drains and other obstacles do not bar this new menace, and when travelling along tracks and roadways in the evening, 'it is possible to see the grub in a thick black swarm traversing the bare ground in search of new pasture. According to information gleaned from those who have, studied the. caterpillar, it lies dormant until shortly after noon when with a voracious appetite to devour everything green in its path. It lis particularly active in the late evening when,, as: reported by some farmers, one can go into a stand of new grass and actually hear the noise of many thousands at work. Mr T. M. Grant, of Thornton claims that a sward of grass almost as high as one's knees was completely demolished in this manner.

Efforts to eliminate the pest seem so far unavailing owing to its magnitude. Flame, throwers have been tried as well as rollers but the grub has such a start, and is present in such unprecedented numbers, that all efforts in this direction have to date been unsatisfactory.