REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



Bureau or Entomology, 

 Washington, D. C ., Aug. 1, 1917. 

 Sir : I submit herewith a report of the work of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1917. 



L. O. Howard, 

 Entomologist and Chief of Bureau. 

 Hon. D. F. Houston, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



WORK ON THE GIPSY MOTH AND BROWN-TAIL MOTH. 



The work of preventing the spread of the gipsy moth and the 

 brown-tail moth, under the direction of Mr. A. F. Burgess, has been 

 continued along the same general lines as during the preceding year, 

 but many improved methods have been adopted. The territory in- 

 fested with the gipsy moth showed less defoliation than heretofore, 

 and as a result of the scouting and extermination work carried on 

 along the outside border there has been a decrease of 98 square miles 

 in the total infested area. 



The brown-tail moth infestation has decreased, not only in area but 

 in severit}^ The area that has been found uninfested and that has 

 been eliminated from quarantine this fiscal year amounts to 171 

 square miles. No new colonies of the gipsy moth or brown-tail moth 

 outside of the area laiown to be infested have been reported during 

 the past season. 



The field operations have been improved, and the purchase of 

 additional spraying equipment has made possible thorough treat- 

 ment of most of the heavy infestations in the territory adjoining the 

 border towns. The results of the spraying of the previous year were 

 excellent, as in the spots actually treated few egg clusters of the gipsy 

 moth were deposited. A new method of banding trees has been 

 adopted, and a tree-banding material prepared by this bureau in co- 

 operation with the Bureau of Chemistry has been used on a large 

 scale with excellent results. The use of this material has resulted 

 also in decreasing the cost of banding trees, so that a considerable 

 saving has been effected. In order to prevent the spread of small 

 gipsy-moth caterpillars from bad infestations inside the border to 

 towns that were slightly or not at all infested, operations have been 

 carried on in a large number of towns well inside the border, and 



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