APPLE-TREE CATERPILLAR — REMEDIES. DROWNING. 201 



of a dull reddish color with a black head and neck. It subsists 

 upon the old effete matters of the nest, or perhaps consumes the 

 shells of the chrysalids after the moths or their parasites have 

 come from them, for cocoons frequently occur from which these 

 shells have disappeared. 



For destroying these caterpillars a variety of measures are re- ' 

 sorted to by different persons in all parts of our country. Whilst 

 some of these are more or less efficacious others are puerile and 

 worthless, and some do the worms more benefit than harm. 



I have known persons to content themselves with simply 

 thrusting a stick into the nest and tearing it asunder and knock- 

 ing or shaking the worms to the ground, thinking that few of 

 them would be able to find their way up the tree again and that 

 at least a part of them would perish from starvation. Such per- 

 sons have no correct conceptions of the distances which these 

 caterpillars can travel and the variety of leaves on which they 

 can subsist. 



I have known other persons to tear open the nest and pour 

 water into it till it was saturated, thinking this operation drowned 

 the worms. And in former years I was myself accustomed to 

 cut off the limbs containing nests upon the choke cherries in my 

 meadow and throw them into the adjacent creek, supposing the 

 worms would thus be drowned and become food for fish. I have 

 since learned that in this act I was no more wise than the sages 

 of Gotham when they sat about destroying an eel by drowning 

 it. I have known one of these worms after being immersed un- 

 der water two hours revive and crawl away on becoming dry. 

 Nor is hot water more efficacious. Several nests of quite young 

 caterpillars, through which water that was near the boiling point 

 was profusely poured were next day found all alive and appa- 

 rently unharmed by the operation. 



I have sometimes poured soap suds into the nests and upon the 

 worms when exposed upon the limbs and leaves. When wetted 

 in this manner they shrink up and fall to the ground, dead as I 

 have supposed, but I am not certain that none of them have re- 

 vived again when thus treated. Some persons have used ley in 

 the same manner, and this is undoubtedly more destructive. A 

 swab charged with spirits of turpentine or with whale oil soap 



