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Show INSECTS IIITCn- HIKE OVERSEA Facing America today is a little known but still serious problem crop-killing insects that hitch-hike by air, Pathfinder News Magazine points out. As a result, Agriculture Secy. Anderson is expected any day to issue an order that no fruit can enter continental U. S. from Hawaii. Ha-waii. Reason: Present control measures fumigating aircraft in transit and upon arrival no longer long-er are adequate to defent U. S. crops from the hitch-hiking invaders, invad-ers, particularly in the light of expanded ex-panded air transport. At one time during the war as many as 1,500 planes a month arrived ar-rived at and departed from Hawaiian Hawai-ian airfields. As men and supplies flew in and out, so did the bugs and diseases. Now Hawaii has 20 new insects. So far the U. S. mainland has escaped these airboriie insects, but they have a way of cropping up when least expected. Particularly worried is California principal point of entry for planes from Hawaii whose fruit crops total more than $700 million annually. On the other hand, Hawaii got two of her new pests from the U. S.; A wingless Texas grasshopper, disooverd near Hickam Field in July 1945, and the California gray moth. One moth victimizes at least 30 plants. And this may result in establishing a two-way quarantine, quaran-tine, to protect Hawaii as well as the U. S. |