Watch On Ng Pests

Mr. L. J. Dumbleton, Plant

and animal quarantine officer to the South Pacific Com mission, returned to headquarters at Noumea in December following visits to Australian and Dutch New Guinea.

“The two most serious pests threatening crops in New Guinea are the giant snail and the rhino ceros beetle,” said Mr. Dumbleton.

“The giant snail, which was intro duced by the Japanese during the war as a form of emergency ration for their troops, attacks a wide variety of leaf crops, even young cocoa and teak. It occurs around

Kavieng in New Ireland, and Rabaul in New Britain; but, for tunately, on the mainland it is fairly well contained in a small area near Madang, enclosed on three sides by two rivers and the sea. In Dutch New Guinea it occurs at Manokwari. Poison baits offer the best form of control so far discovered.

Speaking of the rhinoceros beetle, Mr. Dumbleton said it was caus ing serious damage to coconut plantations in certain areas, mainly in New Britain and New Ireland.

In an attempt to control it, the authorities were introducing a parasite wasp from Zanzibar. (See article elsewhere in this issue).