THE BROWX-TAIL MOTH. 71 



trees from the insects after his neighbors had destroyed the 

 webs on their own trees. This matter of web destruction 

 is often an expensive undertaking. ]\Iany property owners 

 can ill afford it ; certainly tenants cannot, as a rule ; while 

 the non-resident owner is very apt to neglect this work. 

 Clearly, then, this is a case where co-operation is a neces- 

 sit}^ if the moth is to be held in check ; and, lacking State 

 supervision of the work, municipal enterprise offers the 

 most promising means of relief. 



Under our present laws, municipal officers have the 

 power to enter on private estates for the purpose of sup- 

 pressing dangerously injurious insects ; and it is the 

 opinion of the writers that the control of the brown-tail 

 moth clearh^ falls within the field of legitimate municipal 

 enterprises. 



This pest is certainly a menace to the property and wealth 

 of citizens, while by its attacks on street trees it directly 

 destroys the property of the city or town where it occurs. 

 The good of the community demands that the brown-tail 

 moth should be suppressed, and in no wa}" can this be done 

 more economically than through the direct and S3'stematic 

 work of some municipal department, preferably the one 

 having in charge the parks or streets. In this wa}' all tax 

 payers in a community, sharing, as they do, in innnunitv 

 from damage by the moth, also share in the cost of its sup- 

 pression. 



A campaign against the brown-tail moth is best begun in 

 the fall or early Avinter, preferably in December, after the 

 leaves have fallen from the trees. A preliminary scouting 

 or examination of the territory is always of advantage, as 

 showing where the moth is thickest, and the amount of -work 

 necessary for its suppression. If the numicipal approjiria- 

 tlon is of adequate amount, the whole region should b'^ 

 carefully worked over, and all webs destroyed, in order to 

 prevent the local increase of the moth and its further spread 

 the following summer. Where, as is too often the case, the 

 appropriation is a limited one, the worst infestations should 

 be attended to in a thorough manner. It is but folly to 

 spend money clearing tall street trees from the webs of the 



