200 Carpenter Ants Found

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 3

200 Carpenter Ants Found

(New Zealand Press Association)

PALMERSTON NORTH March 4.

About 200 carpenter ants, a species not established in New Zealand, have been discovered on the property of Mr L. A. Martis, of Longburn. The ants are the same as those discovered on the ship City of Auckland at Auckland recently. They are almost half an inch long and have a very powerful bite.

On Tuesday evening Mr Martis discovered several large ants coming out of a knot-hole in a large piece of timber which had been taken suspected they could be carsuspected they could .be Carpenter ants, sprayed them immediately with a fly spray which kept them in check, and then advised the Department of Agriculture. Specimens were sent to the department's laboratory at Levin where they were identified as carpenter ante by Mr D. Manson. The stack of timber was then drenched with a special insecticide, the log was split and the ants collected. A nest, consisting of tunnels bored in the centre of the timber, was discovered and several small white grubs were taken from it. Two horticulture inspectors from the department, Messrs L, R. Marter and M. R. Eales, supervised the destruction of the ants this morning. The timber was sawn up, taken to

a paddock and burnt. The large crate, weighing about four tons, had arrived in Longburn containing refrigerating equipment. As it was made of good timber, an American hardwood, several members of the firm pulled it apart and took the timber away to use. Each piece of ■ timber had to be traced to . check for further nests, but . no more were found. Mr Martis said that if it had . not been for television cover- . age of the ants found on the ship at Auckland, he would , not have suspected they were [ dangerous.