DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 105 



of tent in which they pass the winter. The nests are from two to four 

 inches in length and are firmly attached to the branches by means of 

 silken threads. At that time, the caterpillars are not more than one- 

 fourth inch in length. 



As soon as spring comes, they emerge and begin feeding on the buds 

 and afterwards upon the leaves. In case the number of nests upon a 

 tree is large, they will soon be stripped of their foliage, as each nest 

 contains the larvae from one egg cluster which numbers from 200 to 300, 

 or more. 



One of the objectionable features of this insect, especially if in villages 

 and cities, is that the caterpillars have long, cOarse hairs, the tips of 

 which are barbed. If one touches the caterpillars or even the "nests" 

 or cocoons, the hairs will penetrate the skin and produce a sort of rash, 

 supposedly from some poisonous principle which they exude and which 

 acts on the red corpuscles of the blood. The irritation produced is quite 

 painful and annoying. 



REMEDIES FOR BROWN-TAIL MOTH. 



At the present time the greatest danger of the introduction of this 

 insect is upon nursery stock. They will be quite small during the winter, 

 but the nests are very easily detected as they are attached to the smaller 

 branches, and at first sight quite closely resemble the cocoon of a large 

 moth. 



As soon as report was received of the threatened invasion, the nurser- 

 ies importing stocks from Europe were at once notified and arrange- 

 ments were made for inspecting every shipment. 



Nearly two million seedlings and other trees were examined and dur- 

 ing the early part of the season, nearly every case had more or less 

 nests. They seemed to be most common on the pear and apple, but a few 

 were found upon plum, cherry and rose stocks. Twenty was the maxi- 

 mum number found in any one case of trees, which generally numbered 

 from 8,000 to 12,000, but that this will he enough to do great harm can 

 be seen from the fact that there are about 250 larvae in each nest, or a 

 maximum of 5,000 in a case of trees. Altogether the shipments to nine 

 nurseries were found infested and these received more than nine-tenths 

 of the stock shipped. 



A considerable number of consignments from England, Holland, and 

 Belgium were also examined. These consisted for the most part of roses 

 and bay and box trees but no sign of infestation could be detected. 



When any infested seedlings were found, they were burned and all 

 others in the case were dipped in kerosene emulsion (1 to 15), or in 

 some of the miscible oils diluted 1 to 20 with water. The packing ma- 

 terial was also burned and the packing cases were either burned or thor- 

 oughly sprayed, and it is hoped that with this care the introduction of 

 the brown-tail moth has been put off for one year. 



In case the insect is found, it will probably be in the larval form 

 and steps should be taken at once to destroy it. During the dormant 

 period the minute larvae will be in the nests and can be readilj^ destroyed, 

 but during the spring fTnd early summer they Avill be found feeding 

 uix)n the foliage. It may be possible to brush some of them off and destroy 

 them, but the chief reliance should be upon arsenate of lead, using 5 

 14 



