SUMMER WARMTH—AND PESTS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 74, 29 March 1933, Page 6

SUMMER WARMTH—AND PESTS

Speculations by various people as to the possibility of Joirds developing an appetite for white butterflies are being backed here and there by personal evidence as to the catching of the butterfly on the wing. The fantail, the sparrow, and the blackbird have all been credited with this feat. But isolated occurrences do not' amount to a general habit, and it would seem that the best opportunity of dealing with the white butterfly occurs before he becomes a butterfly. Mr. W. H.. Field lias, however, drawn attention to the natural protection of certain caterpillars against bird attack, and has; suggested that this protection . belongs to one of the caterpillars;, now eating its way through the lupins and gdrse of the Waikanae-Paraparaumu coast. Almost anyone who ha's a garden knows that in Wellington ; this year caterpillars have been particularly abundant, possibly because of the mild, humid summer. Whether the winter will be of a character to check this leniency to insect life still remains to be seen. A\hard, cleansing winter is perhaps more to be relied on than any acquired habits of birds. Without such, the prospect of spring cabbage may prove to be not bright.