221 



RECENT WORK IN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY CARRIED 

 OUT IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 



By Sir N.J. Moore, Agent-General for Western Australia, 



London. 



Insect Pests i.\ Westi:rx ArsTR.\Li.\ : Provision .m.\üe 

 TO I)e.\l WITH Them. 



The measures taken in Western Australia to deal with 

 insect pests inimical to plant life are divided into two branches 

 — the prevention of entry, and the internal field-work. 



Prevention of Entry. 

 The Insect Pest Amendment Act of 1898 restricts the ports 

 of entry for fruit and plants into Western Australia to two. 

 This enables a skilled staft" of inspectors to scrutinise carefully 

 all fruit and plants imported into the State, and where they 

 deem necessary to destroy or to disinfect, which they have 

 power to do under the law. The importation of plants infested 

 with such parasites or diseases as Codlin ]\Ioth, Mussel Scale, 

 Fruit Fly, Phoma citricarpe, Phylloxera, and other pests declared 

 from time to time to be pests under the Act, is absolutelv pro- 

 hibited. The inspection-work carried on at the ports of entry 

 have been very careful and successful, and since the passing 

 of the Act has prevented the entry of CodHn Moth, Phvllo.xera, 

 etc., although infected plants and fruits have constantly been 

 discovered at the ports and promptly dealt with as described. 

 CodHn Moth made its appearance, however, but it has been 

 stamped out as a result of the field-work and insistence on 

 internal precautions. 



The Field-work. 

 The inspection at the ports has been supplemented bv an 

 elaborate system of field-work. An expert staff of field-in- 

 spectors is employed in combating disease already within the 

 State. Their sole duty is continuously to inspect the orchards 

 and vineyards in their resj)eotive districts. As a result of tiiis 



