WAR AGAINST INSECTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 15

WAR AGAINST INSECTS

EXPERIMENTS MADE ON CAGED PESTS GAS OFFENSIVE Lurking in their millions at British ports, fondly imagining that they are firmly entrenched, armies of insect pests little know of the fate in store for them. Under the generalship of Dr. J. W. Munro, the offensive about to be launched against them threatens them with extermination. The headquarters at Slough have been acquired by the Imperial College of Science, aided by the Empire Marketing Board, and the fight is part of the general battle being waged on all Empire fronts. No quarter will be given. War in its most intensive form, including poison gas, is to be waged. The general and his staff have conceived a grim strategy. At headquarters they have a large number of prisoners, who are to be allowed to bring up their families in captivity. Then they are to be subjected to experiments—exposed to heat and cold and to various poisonous gases. The methods to which they are found most easily to succumb are to be used against their relatives at the ports. CAPTIVES IN CASES Ranged against the rosebud wallpapers of rooms at headquarters are the cages containing the prisoners. In one is the Lasioderma—a beetle with a pretty thing in palates: he likes cayenne pepper, ginger. opium, liquorice, tobacco, furniture upholstery, yeast, curry and nutmegs, among other things. He has been found to thrive on 52 different foods. Near by is the Plodia, a moth which ts a constant source of trouble to the dried fruit trades. These insect pests attack food and raw materials in packing houses.

ships, docks, wharves, warehouses and factories. The food consumer knows nothing of them, because in no case do they survive the manufacturing or packing processes and find their way into the finished product: nor do they have any injurious effects from the health or sanitary points of view.