This silent newsreel from approximately 1926 shows bushland in eastern Australia infected with the noxious prickly pear cactus and the efforts of the scientists trying to combat the problem using cochineal insects. These insects are shown crawling over a piece of prickly pear and a Cactoblastis moth is shown emerging from a chrysalis. The newsreel closes with cattle grazing in bushland free of the prickly pear.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.