Page 1 Advertisements Column 7

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 157, 2 June 1900, Page 1

Farm Topics.

A PASTURE PEST.

Farmers in almost all parts of the South Island are this season complaining of the very serious injury to their pastures, and frequently to cereal and root crops, various garden plants, and even trees, by the l&vages of the pest known as the grass grub, which is the larva of the native insect known as the chafer or brown beetle (Oclontria Zealandica). The mature beetle ia well-known by the loud humming sound which it makes as it flies through th« air on summer nights. Ife lays its eggs in the earl} 7 spring, and the larvas reach maturity sometimes in a few months, but more generally in from t^o to four years. It is during its larvae stage th«tt the pest commits Us ',greate£t~ depredations, burrowing a fe# ranches below the surface and devouring the root of the grass, grain and other crops over an almost incredible area. Paddocks and lawns which have been attacked by the grub often have every root destroyed and the tufts ofi. grass left lying dead upon the surface of the loosened soil. The adult beetle is also a dangerous pest, eating th« foliage and fruit of apple and other kinds of trees. Oichaclists, of course, have preventives and remedies which are not -practicable for farmers, such as spraying tha trees or plants with Paris green, and saturating the ground with bisulphide of carbon or a solution of caustic potash. On the gratis land, irrigation has been found n most effectual remedy. The watt r brings the grubs to the suiface, and also softens the soil, so that the starlings, which quickly find their way to a grub-infested field, eoo,n exterminate the larva*. Harrowing the affected land and immediately afterwards rolling i-t heavily, repeating the process several times at short intervals, is a remedy which is known to most farmers, and is considered to =be the moßfc effective by so exparienced an entomologist a* Mr W. W. Smith, of Ashburtou, who has given much study to the grub, and recognised its power of evil. Dresbinge of lime or salt, or both, are efficacious when there is su fficient moisture to wash the dressing into the soil. Heavy stocking with sheep is also beneficial ; in their search for grazing, the sheep trample all over the field, and thus destroy the larvte. Like many other pests, the grubs are in some seasons, such, for instance, as the present, a veritable plague, but disappear without apparent causr\ and may not appear again in the same locality for years. Still, the repressive measures which we indicated should not be neglected, as there is strong evidence that with each, recurring visit the past ia mor* numerous and more destructive-.