(;u THE BKOWN-TAIL MOTH. 



has fallen tVoui the trees. In the case of (dther fruit or 

 shade trees of ordinary size, nothing is easier than to cut off 

 and burn the webs. The success of this operation was early 

 discovered, and European treatises on the moth make par- 

 ticular mention of this method for combating it. The well- 

 known European laws concerning the brown-tail moth lay 

 particular stress upon this destruction of the winter webs ; 

 anil, in fact, it is the essential feature of the famous French 

 law of " echejiiUcKje.'" 



For the work of web destruction there will be recjuired 

 ladders of suitable length, stout clothing, and some form of 

 pruning shears attached to a long handle, the so-called 

 " AVater's pruner*' being the one generally used. It has 

 been found that this work can be done more rapidly and 

 thoroughly by two men, one on the ground to discover and 

 point out the webs, the other cutting them oti' while in the 

 tree. All Avebs removed in this manner should be carefully 

 gathered in bags or baskets, and destroyed by fire. A care- 

 ful series of experiments made at the insectary of the gypsy- 

 moth committee in the winter of 18!) 7-98 showed that, if 

 these webs are left upon the ground, the vitality of the in- 

 sects is not destroyed by the action of the elements, and 

 tiiat a considerable percentage of them will emerge un- 

 harmed the following spring. In this experiment, as con- 

 ducted by ]\Ir. Kirkland, a number of brown-tail moth webs 

 were spread upon the ground in a single layer in the fall, 

 and covered with a piece of coarse poultry netting ; thus the 

 webs were exposed throughout the winter to rain, snow, 

 freezing and thawing. The following spring, as soon as the 

 caterpillars in webs on fruit trees near b}' began to show 

 signs of activity, the wel)s were taken from the ground 

 (April 1"), 18(ID) and each i)laced in a glass-covered box. 

 'i'lie larva' commenced to emerire soon after the webs were 

 brought into a warm room, and continued to come out until 

 April '2-2. A})ril 2(5, as no more larva' came from the webs, 

 they were destroyed. In all, li' webs yielded larva', while 

 from H2 welis no larv:e emerged. Careful records were kept 

 of 8 webs from which caterpillars emerged, in order to de- 

 termine the number of larva^ coming from each web. The 

 results are tabulated below : — 



