5 
INSECT PROBLEMS OF THE PINEAPPLE INDUSTRY. 
By D. T. FuLLAWAY. 
I do not know what Mr. White had in mind when he injected 
the word ''problem" into the title of my subject, but I am glad he 
did so, for it gives me latitude to express a conviction which I 
have had for some time but did not know anyone shared with 
me, namely, that the insects are going to prove a problem if 
measures are not taken to restrain them. I have hitherto con- 
sidered the pineapple growers more fortunate than other crop 
producers in regard to losses occasioned by insects, for while the 
mealybug and the scale and a few minor pests have always had 
to be contended with, the damage which they have done in the 
past has been on the whole insignificant. But the alarming out- 
break of the fruit beetle last spring and the red spider scare this 
fall, coupled with the statement of Mr. Horner in regard to ants, 
lead me to believe that, in the rapid expansion of the industry, 
too little attention has been paid to the insects, and their capacity 
for harm is not realized. As compared with other crops, how- 
ever, I think it can still be maintained that the pineapple crop 
enjoys a remarkable freedom from injury by insects, and nothing 
of a distressing or calamitous nature should be anticipated from 
my previous remarks. 
As most of you, I presume, are aware, nearly all of our in- 
jurious insects are non-indigenous species, whiich have been 
brought to our shores in commercial shipments or along with 
plants introduced as stock for propagation ; and among them are 
a host of species which are indiscriminate in their feeding habits. 
Cutworms, wireworms, grasshoppers, fruit-flies and the Japanese 
beetle are examples. Many of our crops suffer severely from the 
attacks of insects of this sort. The pineapple plant, however, is 
never, or scarcely ever, touched by them. The reason for this, in 
my opinion, is found in the nature of the plant. I believe it is 
unattractive to them. The insects which we find on the pineapple 
— such as the mealybug, scale, and red spider — are considered to 
be closely associated with the plant. They are found on the 
pineapple in other countries and have evidently been brought here 
on plants introduced for propagation before there was any in- 
dustry and (in the case of the two first, anyway) before we had 
a plant quarantine. There are also other insects, of much greater 
import, attached to the pineapple plant in other lands, the beetle 
borer of the West Indies, and the fruit fly of the South Seas, 
which has now reached as far north as Fiji, for example, but the 
likelihood of their reaching these Islands is now very remote, I 
judee, in view of the close and careful scrutiny g^iven to plants 
which are brought into the Islands, and the probability that we 
