INSECT ATTACKER ON BOOTS.

Shannon News, 12 February 1926, Page 2

INSECT ATTACKER ON BOOTS.

AN" OPriCIAL INVESTIGATION. Agriculturists, and particularly woolgrowers, will be interested in sonic investigations made recently by the Department of Agriculture which seem to point to the discovery of a natural enemy of that troublesome weed, bidibidi, says the Christehurch correspondent of the. New Zealand Herald. The presence of this vegetable pest in large quantities on sheep runs is well-known to reduce greatly the selling value of the wool. Recently the Department received a report fro":a Mr. W. 11. Montgomery, of Little River, to the effect that bidibid was disappearing on certain hillsides in the district and particularly in the Puaha Valley. Mr. F..E. Ward, instructor in agriculture, investigated the matter, aud was 1 old by Mr. J. McGovvan that on cci'tain faces the bidibidi had b'HcliPiied and had almost disappeared, while in other places it was still iiourinshing. Mr. Ward found, that remnants id' the plant in the localities where they bad blackened st.il] remained, and at the roots of: these remnants he discovered several forms of insect life. Bpecimeus of these were forwarded to the Govrnment mycologist at Wellington, who reported that of these insects a crane fly larva was most likely to have been responsible for the condition of the plants. The result of these investig'atiir.m opens up the possibility of the introduction of this natural enemy in districts badly infested with bidibidi, and the ultimate extermination of the weed.