The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-12-02

A terrible menace to both the coffee
and the fruit industries of this Terri
tory has been met and. it is to be
hoped. vanquished by the entomoIo-
Forestry
1t is the green bug" a scale pest
which, in seventeen years, wiped out
the coffee industry of Ceylon. Happily,
when this dreadful visitor was dis
covered a few weeks ago to be infest-
ing coffee and citrus trees in Kona, a
parasite sent from Australia by Pro-
fessor Koebele had already begun it's
work and given proof of its efficacy
as a deadly foe of the destroyer.
Particulars of the most important
of Agriculture and Forestry yesterday
by Jacob Kotinsky of the chronological
division. BY direction of Superintend-
ent Alexander Craw he had gone to
kona, Hawaii, to investigate a report
of the appearance of a scale blight
there. In the absence of Mr.. Craw he
now read the official report of his in
vestigation
The pest was reported to be upon
the vanilla plantation of E. H. Ed
wards, Honaunau, where other prod
Kotinsky found both the guava scale
and the green bug infesting some
vanilla plants and lime trees there.
This green bug was none other than
the scourge that had destroyed the
coffee plantations of Ceylon, as al
ready stated, within the space of sew
enteen years. 1t was a notorious pest
of Ceylon, Mauritius and South Africa,
| and known as terribly destructive to
rubber, guava and other trees.
| Mr.. Kotinsky believed, from the
! fortunately slight Roadway it had gain
| ed in Kona, that only a few of the bugs
We're imported and that parasite al
| ready sent here by Professor Koebele
! from Australia to prey on other pests
| had promptly engaged them in a war
! of determination. Mr.. Edwards. be-
| fore the entomologist left, had uproot-
| ed and burned all of the infected trees
and plants.
1t was fairly established that the
pest had come on vanilla plants from
| Fiji. : Mr. Kotinsky made a thorough
| search for other pests in Kona. He
| found a brown scale on vanilla vines.
Referring to lay talk about danger
from parasites introduced to fight pests,
| he declared that he knew of no com
petent entomologist who believed that
| the lantana parasite introduced by
Prof Koebele had attacked any other
plants.
OTHER PESTS.
Mr. Kotinsky had looked up the tor
pedo bug" to which some coffee grow
ers attributed a % per cent. loss of
crops It was not discovered in such
abundance as would justify so serious
a complaint and the investigator
thought a parasite sent from Australia
by Prof. Koebele last winter was ef-
fective against it.
The entomologist expressed disap-
pointment at the lack of interest shown
by ranchmen in efforts to suppress the
horn fly. He sent a request for labor
atory material needed in the investi-
cation to all of the managing graziers
in the country but from only two of
them had any replies been received. A
search he had made for two hours in
Kona had resulted in finding but three
of the horn fly pupae- AT Leilehua on
this island he found only few, but
a roundup of $50 cattle in the noun
tain above there revealed a multitude.
LANTANA BLIGHTS.
On the road down to Kailua, Ha-
wall, he found the real MAUI blight
on the Iantana, and spoke of the care
lessness of cultivators who allowed