The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-09-18
INVASION OF
ANTS FEARED

Hawaii stands a chance Of an inva.
sion Of new kind of ant, and Ento.
mologist Kotinsly of the Board of
Agriculture is anxious that importers
of groceries and other food supplies
take hand in preventing its introduce
ton. The entomologist Is not thor.
oughly acquainted with the prospective
pest himself, and although he might
give technical description of the ant
to those who might come in contact
with it, yet it is so much like other
ants that possibly the groeers at al.
might not know Mr.. Ant il they came
face to face with him. In his report
to the Board of Agriculture yesterday
Mr.. Kotinsky stated:
',The so.caled Argentine Ant
Qdiomyrmex humilis Mayr), 30 named
because Of the country of its supposed
origin was recently reported discovered
in and about Oakland, California, The
discovery is important because during
the four years of its presence in Louis,
lana, the first state of the Union In.
vaded by it, it has proven to be a most
formidable household pest, though it is
apparently quite injurious also to horti,
culture. l gather this information
from q paper in the first number VI
the Journal of Economic Entomology,
a new periodical, by the Louisiana
State Entomologist, who made careful
observations on its habits. The dis,
covery is important to us because tho
locality is so near the port from which
we receive most of our supplies and
are therefore in danger of an early in
lxra Ctn lxx~ h.. -
is authentic we had recently confirmed
by specimens and letter from Mr.. f. NJ.
Ehrhorn, the California chronological
inspector. The condition requisite for
the insect to be established here is that
a complete colony including mated
queen be brought over. Such colony
would--be located either in the ship or
in the cargo. Were the ant to cnnfine
its life among plants we could be .rea,
sonably certain of keeping IL out. But
since it is more likely TO locate In
groceries and just as likely to be in n
lumber or hardware cargo, the question
assumes a different aspect, 1t is up to
the grocers to look out for the pest
perhaps more than upon anyone else. .
Campaign Against Pests.
Other items in his report were as FOL.
lows: iof 1nal
"We are somewhat engaged in q, cam
paign against the grade of turnips ship
ped here, With very few exceptions
these are heavily infested with the cab.
bage maggot (Phorbia brassicae) ana
bear, in addition, heavy mats of fine
rootlets more or less mixed with soil.
At yet this fly is not known in Hawan
and to our advantage to keep out. The
mating of roots and soil is not safe.
Such are, therefore, invariably con
demned either to be burned or returned
In the majority of cases the former is
chosen by consignees. We are dc.
termined to insist upon absolutely
clean, pest free turnips. -
y AS to plants received here from other
v ports, Mr.. Kotinsky reports;
at is an established fact in our prac
: ticc that fruits and plants collected by
private parties in their own gardens OIL
I, orchards and sent to friends here we
are almost invariably obliged to burn
owing to heavy infestation with hosts
of pests. Such people would avoid
much trouble and expense by sending
none but clean, pest.free products.
. a month ago the entomologst had
occasion to state in report that ''scale
! bugs (Diaspinae), stem borers and q
, colony of black ant were collected on
a lot of Dendrobium (Orchids) brought
from Manila by the Sheridan on the
, 5th. We fumigated the plants to Kill
t the scale and hand-killed the borers
r The only adult borer found was killed
j. in a cyanide bottle and placed in tn,
g. k,a 1nAo H.,
It The ants were preserved in alcoho
/ and sent to a specialist to be named.
e "a japanese merchant not yet fam
liar with our practice of excluding
t scabby potatoes had lot of 100 sack
e of badly infested potatoes come from
g Seattle on the 9th and at our instance
h destroyed. His petition to be allowed
: to feed these potatoes to pigs was re
L fused for tactical reasons and because
r as DIR. Cobb has proven, spores are no
,, rendered inocuous by passing througl
the alimentary canal of an animal.
Mangosteens Destroyed.
'Mr. MacIntyre of the Moanalua gar
!, dcns returned from Manila bringln,
= with him five wardian cases, witt
= twenty mango plants in each, one wit
q twenty-four mangosteen sprouts, sever
h al packages of mango seeds, aud fou
4 dozen magosteen fruit. The last wa
70 refused admission in accordance wit
o. board regulations prohibiting imports
/. tion of fresh fruits from the Orien
al Some of the mango plants were foun
Is infested with aphis and all the case
were fumigated with hydrocyanic aci
IN gas. The mango seeds were inspected
Is found apparently pest free and passe,
in The soil in the pots was original
II taken from here, and, in accordanc
e. with your instructions, was kept i
,r screened houses while in Manila.
letter from the officer in charge of tn
10 Botanical Gardens, Manila, brought b
N Mr.. MacIntyre and placed on our file
y testifies to that effect. Upon examine
T. ton nothing was found in the so
ID liable to become injurious and it wa
er passed.
% Formerly the rice coming here fror
W Japan during July. August aand Sci
ie TENDER used to be heavily infested wit
le a variety of pests. We kept clos