The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-10-07

en- up by reason of the pest, but he
| found no parasite. On his way home
| he stopped III Washington to see if
| the department entomologists could
| give him useful information. They said
| they could not. He asked to see their
note books containing materiai not pub
| lished which they We're glad to show
| him. On referring to his index the
entomologi~t in charge of that division
| found in the Hrst reference to which
| he opened allusions TO letter from a
! gentleman from San Paulo, Brazil in
closing a specimen of the insect to be
identified. and adding a. particular re-
quest that the specimen be returned.
Why SOP" thought Mr.. Compere. If
| they were plentiful there he could catch
a specimen with much less trouble
than to have it sent back, and yet the
| insect was certainly there. So Mr..
Conpere took the address wrote to the
gentleman and went home. The clue
did not justify him in going to Brazil
without instructions. For six months
no reply came to his letter, and so Mr..
Compere started for India after a para
site for something else. He found sew
eral parasites, but could by no means
get them out as bubonic plague was
raging, and everything shipped by mail
OF .OlnSTWlSe ndQ TO De IuinlSateu, ana
fumigation, which will kill plague nil
crobes, will also kill insects; but while
there he received the ong-expected let-
ter from Brazil, which informed him
that the fruit fly had been known to
the gentleman as long as he had been
in the country, but it was rare"
If the fly was rare in the very para
disc of insect life. Mr.. Compere was
convinced that it was the work of a
parasite, and he Immediately started
for Brazil passing through this city a
few days ago, confidently expecting to
find the bug he needs. Possibly it is
not surprising that our Washington
authorities hesitate to use public funds
in prosecuting quests so uncertain.
Two trips across the Pacific, the Amer
lean Continent, and the Atlantic and
back in search of an insect which is
probably hardly visible when found,
and which may not be found at ALL is
risky business. AS more people get in
to the business in different countries
and discoveries are exchanged the prac-
tice of the art will grow cheaper.
PESTS AWAITING PARASITES
While in Spain, Mr.. Compere found
parasite of the Goblin moth. which he
believes will be effective. That would
be almost too good news to be true.
The Goblin moth is one of the most
destructive of all pests, and is widely
distributed. IT probably however, does
more damage in California than any
where else, and is not known to have
any parasite here. A search in some
country where it exists but does no
great harm may result in delivering
us from its ravages. Tt is not unlikely
that Mr.. Compere may be sent to look
further into the character of this Span
ish parasite. There are other greac
problems awaiting solution. The State
of Massachusetts has spent hundreds
of thousands of dollars in vain attempts
to exterminate the gypsy NTH, which
was introduced from Europe. Like the
cottony cushion scale, it is a general
devastator, and Massachusetts has
bought and paid for entire orchards
and forests which have been complete
ly burned up, and while of course the
progress of the moth has been checked,
yet it is plain that it will soon be as
abundant as ever, and Massachusetts
is appealing to Congress for help, lest
it consume the whole country
It is no such pest in Europe. and Mr.
Compere feels perfectly sure that with
in two years parasites could be found
which would entirely subdue. it The
same belief is held with regard to the
cotton boil weeviI, which threatens the
entire destruction of our cotton indus
try, and for whose determination Con-
gress recently appropriated half a mill
lion dollars. And yet the Government
entomologists give virtually no hope
of subduing it, for it's life history -
such that there is no way of reaching
it by artificial means. Somewhere it
exists and is not a pest. The problem
is TO find that place and find the para
site. If our bureaucratic entomoiogists
have ever proposed such a thing we do
not know it, which is astonishing in the
light of the enormous savings which
have unquestionably been made By
these methods by Californians. Para
sites have not yet relieved US from
spraying and fumigation, and perhaps
never will, for new pests are constant
~ introduced. There are also occa-
sionalIy conflicts apparently inevita-
bic, when parasites are partly introduced
and yet spraying is continued, the
spraying of course killing parasites
with all other insect life. Nevertheless,
it remains true that only through Nat
ure's methods is there any nope what
ever of maintaining the balance of Nat
ure which is essential TO the prosperity
of our races. f. Chronicle.