338 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



meeting of the Entomological Society, [of London ?] Mr. J. H. 

 Fennell communicated the following successful mode of prevent- 

 ing insects ascending the trunks of fruit-trees. Let a piece of 

 Indian rubber be burnt over a gallipot, into which it will gradu- 

 ally drop in the condition of a viscid juice, which state, it appears, 

 it will always retain ; for Mr. Fennell has, at the present time, 

 some which has been melted for upwards of a year, and has been 

 exposed to all weathers without undergoing the slightest change. 

 Having melted the Indian rubber, let a piece of cord or worsted 

 be smeared with it, and then tied several times round the trunk. 

 The melted substance is so very sticky, that the insects will be 

 prevented, and generally captured, in their attempts to pass over 

 it. About three pennyworth of Indian rubber is sufficient for the 

 protection of twenty ordinary sized fruit-trees." Applied in this 

 way it would not be sufficient to keep the canker-worm moths 

 from getting up the trees ; for the first comers would soon bridge 

 over the cord with their bodies, and thus afford a passage to their 

 followers. To insure success, it should be melted in larger 

 quantities, and daubed with a brush upon strips of cloth or paper, 

 fastened round the trunks of the trees. Worn out Indian rubber 

 shoes, which are worth little or nothing for any other purpose, 

 can be put to this use. This plan has been tried by a few per- 

 sons in the vicinity of Boston, some of whom speak favorably of 

 it. It has been suggested that the melted rubber might be appli- 

 ed immediately to the bark without injuring the trees. A little 

 conical mound of sand surrounding the base of the tree is found 

 to be impassable to the moths, so long as the sand remains dry ; 

 but they easily pass over it when the sand is wet, and they 

 come out of the ground in wet, as often as in dry weather. 



Some attempts have been made to destroy the canker-worms 

 after they were hatched from the eggs, and were dispersed over 

 the leaves of the trees. It is said that some persons have saved 

 their trees from these insects by freely dusting air-slacked lime 

 over them while the leaves were wet with dew. Showering the 

 trees with mixtures that are found useful to destroy other insects, 

 has been tried by a few, and, although attended with a good deal 

 of trouble and expense, it may be worth our while to apply such 

 remedies upon small and choice trees. Mr. David Haggerston, 



