CATERPILLAR MENACE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 40, 10 November 1937, Page 9

CATERPILLAR MENACE

Scotland's Farm Lands Devastated LONDON, Jaly 4. Caterpffiafs ara ffi Uia wwi, eommenta R4^»oldi Jowrtal. In thr courta of a faw daya thay hava . stripped bare the trees of Amatardam. devastated vrtde ereas of Scotthh farm land; and eompelled the farmera o. Norfolk and Buffblk to take extenslvt preeaUtiona to klep them out of theli flelds. In Seotland the chtef areas affeeted are the Oehtl dtstriet of Perthsblre, the Denny and Campele diatriote of SUrUngshlre, the Loeh Lomond dtstriet, and . tho new Gumnook district of Ayrshlre. Movlng at the rate of about a »lle a day, the lmmense swarma of eaterpQlars, the grub of th'e antler moth, eat Ihe grasa bare, the ground over which they have passed appeerlng ae though it had been burnt. There 1* a clash of oplnlon between agriculture! acientlsta, who state that the roots of grasses are not destroyed, and farmers, who aver that in many plaoes the roots have been oompletely eaten. Wind Helpe. v In sorns parts of the eountry a very hlgh wind last week helped to mltlgate the problem. The caterplUars, having reaohed the chrysalls stage, wero light and brittle, so that the wind blew them away and deatroyed them. The danger is now on the wane. Pupation — the chrysalls otage — is in progress in many parts, and wlthln tha next two weeks the caterplUars will have taken wings. Experts believe that the eggs from whioh the plague developed wera •oattered over Sootland last autumn. Then, thsy say, there must have been an lnvasion of moths driven from some fofeign land by abnortnal aotivlties among -the natural enemlea of the specles. Another view ls that the outbreak of the pest ls the result of a season in whioh muoh snow has laln on the hills untll late spring or early summer, protecting the young caterpillars. Fruit Trees Attacked. In Norfolk and Suffolk the pests have attacked fruit trees, and bonflres have been used in an effort to keep them from the field crops. Fields of oats, wheat, and sugar-beet are threatened. All efforts to sta'mp out the "caterpillar lnvasion" of Amsterdam- have been unguccessful. Nearly every -tree j in the clty has been stripped, and the caterpillays have even penetrated I houses near Ihe canals.