30 THE REPORT OF THE No. 19 



tlie day. Later in tlie season, the pupae and female motlis are cruslied by 

 hand or creosoted wherever found, while after the e^gs are laid coal tar 

 creosote applied with a brush to the egg masses completely destroys them. 

 This creosoting of the egg masses is carried on throughout the fall, winter 

 and spring, and is a most effective though somewhat expensive method. 

 In badly infested woodlands we thin the trees, cut the brush and treat the 

 egg masses on the trees left standing. The following spring we band the 

 remaining trees with some sticky material to prevent the ascent of the young 

 caterpillars, and as soon as all the eggs on the ground^have hatched, a light 

 fire is run over it, thus destroying the caterpillars by the million. These 

 are the principal Methods directly used for destroying this insect. As a 

 matter of policy we have attempted first to stop the scattering of the moth 

 by treating a 100 foot belt on each side of all our main roads. This pre- 

 vents the caterpillars from spinning down and dropping on vehicles. In 

 this way, over 8,000 miles of roads have been covered during the present 

 season. Next, we have endeavored to do the greatest good to the greatest 

 number of our people by clearing all the important residential sections of 

 the moth, and certainly 90 per cent, of them have been so cleared and pro- 

 tected. There now remains the great woodland Tiroblem concerning which 

 we are most anxious, but which we can solve if given sufiicient time and 

 money. 



"In combating the Brown-tail Moth the natural and most effective 

 measure is to cut off the winter webs, gather them carefully and burn them. 

 This work is best done when snow is on the ground. Where this has been 

 neglected a spraying with arsenate of lead, six pounds to one hundred gal- 

 lons of water early in the spring will suffice to destroy the insects. In 

 actual field practice the winter w^ork of cutting off brown-tail webs, and of 

 creosoting gypsy moth nests goes on at the same time and with the same 

 gang. 



**In opening this informal talk I spoke of the balance of nature; and 

 how injurious insects in their natural environment are ultimately held in 

 check by their parasites. In Eastern Massachusetts we are endeavoring to 

 secure this balance of nature in connection with the moth pests by the im- 

 portation from Europe of the parasites of both moths. Our State has made 

 liberal appropriations (some |45,000) for this work, which I have placed 

 under the oversight and direction of Dr. L. 0. Howard, Washington, D.O., 

 than whom no one in the country is better qualified to direct. Dr. Howard 

 has made several trips abroad for us and engaged a competent corps of col- 

 lectors in all parts of Europe where the moth occurs. He has also given 

 us the benefit of his advice at all times, and the services of one of his 

 trained assistants who has spent nearly all his time in Eastern Massa- 

 chusetts looking after the material when it arrives. We have provided for 

 this important work a well-equipped laboratory, and a large number of 

 assistants, and during the past year over 100,000 different forms of para- 

 sites of the moth have been bred from European material and liberated in 

 our infested district. We have imported several important Ichneumonids, 

 a very large number of Pteromalids, thousands of Tachinids, and also a 

 larcre number of predaceous beetles of the genus Calosoma. When a suffic- 

 iently large number of any of these parasites is obtained at any one time 

 they are liberated directly in the field. Otherwise, they are bred up to the 

 requisite number in outdoor cages and then liberated. What the outcome 

 of this exceedingly interesting scientific experiment shall be, is, of course, 

 problematical. We know already that certain important imported species 

 have established themselves in our State, and are hopeful that another sea- 

 son will show that many others have done likewise. At any rate, the best 



