Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1905 — OLIVE PEST IN ITALY. [ARTICLE]

OLIVE PEST IN ITALY.

Fly Which Stings Fruit Does $25,000000 Damage a Year. Southern Italy, and especially Apulia, owes Its income, beside from wine, to oil, the province of I.eeee producing £2,800,000 worth yearly, that of Bari £1,800,000 worth, and that of Foggia £400,000 worth. All this, which represents a considerable fortune for those districts which are among the poorest of the peninsula, has been spoiled In these later years by an Insect called the olive fly, which stings the young fruit, and has produced only in pne year £5,000,000 damage. It Is an insect half the size of the house fly, rather attractive in appearance, having a gray body, orange head, green eyes, surmounted by two black spots, und Irrldescent wings, which, however, it does not use, us It hops instead of flies. The fem&le alone does all the harm, ns she Is provided with a special sting, with which she perforates the olives, Introducing Into each an egg, and being able to produce from 300 to 400 one after the other. Thirty days are required for the incubation of the egg, and It Is estimated that In one season each female is responsible for about ICO,000.00*) flies. If seems that the first time that this scourge was recorded was in 1777, In the province of Genoa, and since then many systems have been studied to fight It, but with little success, inasmuch as the only means found of killing the fly also killed the fruit. Now the Govcnfhaent has sent Dr. De Clllis, who claims to have discovered a remedy, which will be a real blessing for the afflicted regions.—Philadelphia Ledger.