A VALUABLE SUGGESTION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 640, 18 October 1909, Page 3

A VALUABLE SUGGESTION.

•...bir, W© have in Not/.Zealand, as all garden* ers are aware,';biany pests that 'have-by"some means' arrived, here,' unaccompanied 'by■;their ; natural/enemies, which in other countfics"keep the|r too rapid-increase in check'. Some- of the worst pests m gardens at this time of the year are slugs and snails, and though the thrushes no doubt destroy many of the latter, tho former are increasing at . a most alarming extent... In Europe, among the 'slugs' most persistent enemies, are the Carabidao family of beetles, and I would like to suggest that, unless there, is some serious objection that I do . not know of to their importation, that they be introduced into this Dominion.. M. Michclet declares that they never do any harm, but as he puts it, they are "porfect rural constabulary, day and night, without.holidays or repose, protecting our fields.. They are occupied entirely .in arresting thieves, ana. they, desire no salary but the body of the thief .himself." I believe too that the kindred family-of the Cincindelidae arc nearly as valuable as a means of keeping- in check the increase of slugs • and other-pests of like nature. - The beetle known to English boys as the "ground beetle" is one of the commonest of tho Carabus family, and I expect that it could easily bo shipped to us here in one or all of its four stages of existence, cither as eggs, larvae", pupa, or perfect insect. Its advent and complete colonisation would probably bo worth thousands to the Dominion. Would the Government or ,tho Acclimatisation Society take the matter up?—l am,--etc., IV DE J. CLERE. October 14. .