DISEASES AND PESTS 105 



MISCELLANEOUS PESTS 



The robber crab, Birgus latro, is a huge crab, 

 sometimes more than a foot long, living on the coasts 

 of the Islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. From 

 Samar across Polynesia it is known as an enemy of the 

 coco-nut. Its claws are so powerful that it can tear 

 the husk from a ripe nut and break the shell, either 

 directly or by beating it on a stone. It then eats the 

 meat. A crab can consume two coco-nuts daily, but it 

 is likely to have time for only one, as it works chiefly 

 during the night. The crab not only destroys fallen 

 nuts, but has been certainly known to climb trees and 

 fell the nuts. The crab itself is a highly prized article 

 of food, and is therefore kept in check where there are 

 enough people to have coco-nut plantations. It has 

 been suggested that with the decrease of the Polynesian 

 population the crab may increase in number, enough to 

 become a dangerous pest ; but as men will always live 

 where there are coco-nuts, and there is no interest in 

 coco-nuts where there are no people to care for them, 

 this danger is probably not great. 



Snakes are not an enemy of the coco-nut, but are 

 rather serviceable in that they kill rats. Where rats 

 are abundant, snakes are not rarely found in the crowns 

 of the trees, and have been known to kill men gathering 

 nuts or toddy. 



Among birds a parrot is said to destroy young nuts 

 in parts of Polynesia. The crow is an enemy of coco- 

 nuts in most parts of the tropics. It picks holes in the 

 young nuts for the sake of the water, and all nuts which 

 have so been opened fall to the ground. In times of 

 drought, when water is hard to find elsewhere, the 

 damage done by crows becomes very serious. The most 

 practical way of getting rid of them is to shoot as 

 many as possible, and hang their carcasses in the 

 trees. The same method will probably serve against 

 the parrot. 



The huge fruit bats, sometimes called flying foxes, 



