12 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 76 



regarded as causing a great economic loss. Swain (1918) gives the 

 following account: 



It was not uncommon last summer for the trains on the Gatineau 

 River line of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Quebec to be stopped 

 by myriads of these caterpillars swarming on the rails, which were 

 effectively greased by their crushed bodies. The engine men were 

 kept busy in many places sanding the rails and sweeping away the 

 crawling masses of caterpillars in front of the engine; while the latter 

 was often covered with hundreds of the creatures after passing through 

 infested districts. 



Similar instances have been reported from other areas. 



Many species of tent caterpillars will feed on fruit trees throughout 

 North America, but they are of no concern to the professional fruit- 

 grower since the normal spray program used for more serious pests 

 also will control them effectively. The backyard fruit tree often is 

 attacked, but the caterpillars usually are dispatched promptly by 

 means of clippers, torch, broom, or similar home remedy. 



One type of damage caused primarily by those species which build 

 conspicuous tents is the "injury" to peoples' aesthetic sense caused 

 by a nearly naked tree crawling with "worms" and bearing numerous 

 unsightly masses of webbing. These "worms" and unsightly tents have 

 in the past stirred up many a campaign to "eliminate tent caterpillars 

 from the face of the earth" by collecting egg masses and by destroying 

 caterpillars and tents. Harris (1841) gives the following exhortation: 



Let every able-bodied citizen, who is the owner of an apple or cherry 

 tree, cultivated or wild, within our borders, appear on duty, and open 

 the campaign on the first washing day in May, armed and equipped 

 with brush and pail, as above directed, and give battle to the common 

 enemy; and let every housewife be careful to reserve for use a plentiful 

 supply of ammunition, strong waste soap-suds, after every weekly 

 wash, till the liveried host shall have decamped from their quarters, 

 and retreated for the season. If every man is prom.pt to do his duty I 

 venture to predict that the enemy will be completely conquered in 

 less time than it will take to exterminate the Indians in Florida. 



Britton (1935) gives an interesting account of some egg mass and 

 tent campaigns that were carried out against the eastern tent cater- 

 pillar. These usually consisted of attempts to persuade people to destroy 

 all the tents that could be found and included contests for school 

 children. Boy Scouts, etc., in which prizes were offered for the largest 

 number of egg masses collected. Needless to say, such campaigns 

 often were beneficial to selected trees, but as population-control 

 programs they were failures. 



