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Show INTERCEPT AND DESTROY FLIES Half of Insect Pests Could Have " Been Kept Out of Country by Quarantine. FRUIT FLIES ARE BEAUTIFUL No shipments of fruit can be made from Hawaii to the Pacfic coast or unloaded there unless they have first received federal approval. The federal fed-eral horticultural board also maintains a fruit-fly specialist whose duty it is to gather available information regarding this pest either by travel in foreign lands or by correspondence with specialists spe-cialists serving foreign governments. Aid From the Public. . Travelers from foreign lauds hav been called upon to he'p to the utmost ut-most in seeing that th?y do not be- come the carriers of insect pests. Printed matter calling attention to the serious consequences that may follow the careless and unintentional introduction intro-duction of fruit flies from Hawaii is distributed to all persons entering Pacific Pa-cific ports from the Haw-aiian islands. Each passenger must sign an affidavit stating that he has in his baggage no fruit subject to fruit-fly attack. Inspectors In-spectors who search the baggage of incoming in-coming travelers for fruits carrying fruit flies or their maggots find infested infest-ed fruit every month. Any one of these instances if not dealt with promptly and properly might mean the loss of thousands or millions of dollars dol-lars to American farmers and fruit growers. Immense Losses Caused Annually to Fruits and Vegetables of United States Could Be Prevented , Precautions Being Taken. More than half of the insect pests that annually cause immense losses in fruits and vegetables of the United Stntes could have been kept out of this country by thorough quarantine against them, according to officials of the United States department of agriculture. agri-culture. To guard against more injurious in-jurious insects being brought in from other countries is the object of the federal plant quarantine act of 1912 which, with the development of knowledge knowl-edge of insects throughout the world, has resulted in the bars being put up wherever the pests are likely to enter. Among the Insects of other lands that have not yet become established In this country are the serious pests known popularly as fruit flies. They resemble ordinary house flies but"are far more beautiful, inasmuch as their wings are prettily spotted and banded band-ed end their bodies are usually more brightly colored. They are like house flies nl.so In that they lay small, white eggs that hntch into whitish maggots. However, the maggots do not develop in refuse tr decaying matter as do those of the house fly, but they feed upon the living tissues of fruits, nuts and vegetables. Eggs are laid just under the skin of the host plant or fruit nnd Ihese hatch Into the maggots mag-gots which burrow in all directions through the pulp. As the maggots tunnel bout they cause decays to develop and these rotting areas often produce greater injury than the maggots mag-gots themselves. Where Danger Lies. Increasing imports from the countries coun-tries where fruit flies now abound, extension ex-tension of trade to remote corners of the enrth, increasing density of population in the warmer portions of this country, are making greater each year the danger that fruit files may become firmly established in the United Unit-ed States. To Intercept nnd destroy fruit flies ns well as other pests, the federal hcrtioulturnl board of the department nf agriculture, charged with the enforcement en-forcement of the plant quarantine act, prohibits the entry of nil horticultural products likely to carry Insect pest, unless they have been rendered free from danger as pest carriers, either by federal Inspection or by treatment by approved methods under federal supervision. su-pervision. The department also has established estab-lished In the Hawaiian Islands a system sys-tem of inspection that Is heartily supported sup-ported by fruit growers and transportation transpor-tation companies, whereby all plantations planta-tions and packing. houses from which fit-It Is shipped are kept from becoming becom-ing sources of fruit-fly dissemination. |