COMBATING THE WHITE BUTTERFLY

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21418, 9 March 1935, Page 7

COMBATING THE WHITE BUTTERFLY

PARASITES RELEASED IN CANTERBURY The Department of Agriculture has released in Canterbury approximately 34,000 of the parasite which is believed to attack the white bulterfiy. The parasite is a black fly about the size of a common ant. Colonies have been established in the last week at Timaru, Heathcote Valley, and Kaikoura, and the parasite is expected to have increased largely in numbers by next spring and summer, when the caterpillars of the white butterfly are again likely to be most active in de« stroying crops. Mr R. McGillivray, fields superintendent of the department at Christchurch, said yesterdav that he had visited Kaikoura on Wednesday, and, in the presence of members of the local Agricultural and Pastoral Association, liberated 15,000 parasites to attack the white butterflies, which were fairly numerous in the Kaikoura district. There, considerable damage had been done to cabbage, rape, and turnip crops. The diamond-back moth was also plentiful in the Kaikoura district, and much damage had been done by it, particularly to turnip crops. Farmers, said Mr McGillivray, had expressed the hope that the department would do something to obtain a natural enemy to deal with this moth. It was proposed to release other parasites for the white butterfly, but it was recognised that it was getting fairly late in the season to secure a good establishment before the frosts came.