PRELIMINARY FIELD EXPERIMENTS WITH AERIAL SPRAYS AGAINST LARVAE OF THE PINE TREE EMPEROR MOTH, NUDAURELIA CYTHEREA CAPENSIS, STOLL.

Abstract

Summary For many years tame pigs kept in enclosures and those which have become wild in plantations have played an important part in controlling Nudaurelia pupae. Although the method is still very effective considerable drawbacks have been experienced during recent years. The cost of keeping tame pigs has increased considerably. At Kluitjeskraal, Wolseley, it has been as high as £3 14s. per acre during 1956. It appears that they do not bring the insect under control in plantations where the pupae are protected under dense brushwood piles, the removal of which incurs considerable expenditure. Where windbreaks near orchards or vineyards are infested their use is impractical. Wild pigs often do considerable damage to crops in the vicinity of pine plantations which they inhabit. In portions of the Kluitjeskraal plantation near Wolseley township where wild pigs are seldom encountered, the insect multiplied to such an extent that extensive defoliation over an area of more than 600 acres would have occurred duri...