AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 1 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 



NO. 12.] DECEMBER, 1905. 



RUBBER PESTS. 



Dr. LlM BOON KENG writes that he finds two enemies very 

 destructive of seedlings a few days old. The first of these is a kind 

 of slug which gnaws off the skin of the seedling which generally 

 breaks off at the point. 



This is doutless the brown slug which has been lately giving a 

 good deal of trouble at the Botanic Gardens. The animal is about 

 ii inch long, light brown and very slimy. It only appears towards 

 dusk, concealing itself in the herbage near during the day. It 

 attacks the young plants as described by Dr. LlM BOON Keng, 

 and also gnaws the green parenchyma and the epidermis of the 

 leaves away leaving only the skeleton of the leaf. It attacks too 

 the young plants up to six or more feet tall nibbling the bark and 

 biting away the buds as they appear checking seriously the growth 

 of the young tree, and causing it to put forth many small buds at 

 the top, which being destroyed as they grow by the slugs, give the 

 tree a stunted and diseased appearance. The only remedy seems 

 to be to collect these animals in the evening by hand and destroy 

 them. Keeping down the weeds near the nursery will doubtless 

 have a good effect, so as to leave no hiding place for them, but a 

 number of seedlings in boxes on a stand raised above the ground 

 in a place bare of herbage were on one occasion badly attacked 

 and many destroyed. They do not seem to attack trees of full 

 size unless the leaves of the lower branches touch the ground, and 

 do not seem to climb up the trees except in the cases of the young 

 stumps referred to. 



The second enemy Dr. LlM BOON KENG refers to is a large 

 cricket probably a Gryllacris, and thought by Dr. HANITSCH of the 

 Museum to be G. tcssellata. "This insect saws the seedling right 

 through leaving a stump 1 to 3 inches tall and carrying off the 

 tender shoot or pulling up the seeds which it carries to its deep bur- 

 rows. A couple worked in a nursery bed unnoticed and in a couple 

 of nights did a lot of damage. I opened up all burrows and captured 

 the insects in their lair." 



