202 APPLE-TREE CATERPILLAR BURNING THE NESTS. 



and thrust into the nest, it is said will kill many of the insects 

 and compel others to escape. 



Burning the nests and thus destroying the worms when at rest 

 within them, has been recommended. A very neat method of 

 effecting this was given by Prof. Mapes at the meeting of the 

 Farmers' club of New-York on the fourth of September last. It 

 is to saturate the nest with a mixture of alcohol and camphene 

 and set it on fire. I have not tested the efficacy ot this mode, but, 

 clustered together in a mass as the worms commonly are in their 

 nests I should be fearful those in the inner part of the mass 

 would not be killed by the transitory heat thus produced, since 

 hot water fails to destroy them. Another method which has 

 often been resorted to is to hold to the nest the muzzle of a gun 

 lightly loaded with powder and discharge it. I have been in- 

 formed that only a part of the worms are commonly destroyed 

 by this operation. 



Sulphur has been in higher repute and has been oftener re- 

 sorted to in this country than any other remedy, for expelling 

 caterpillars and all kinds of worms from trees. A hole is bored 

 in the trunk of the tree to the depth of about six inches; this is 

 filled with sulphur and a plug is inserted to retain it from being 

 washed out by the rain or by sap flowing from the wound. This 

 remedy obtained much currency from the experiments of the 

 late George Webster of Albany, reported in the Memoirs of the 

 old New- York Board of Agriculture, vol. ii, p. 250, and exten- 

 sively copied into other publications at that period. And like 

 Mr. Webster, many others have become assured of the efficacy of 

 this remedy, from the mere fact that the worms have all disappear- 

 ed from the infested trees within a day or two after this measure 

 has been resorted to. Now there is a peculiar liability to be de- 

 ceived and misled, by experiments like this. The larvae of in- 

 sects generally, become most voracious and make the greatest 

 havoc, just as they are arriving at maturity. And as they are 

 now grown to a larger size than they had previously been, they 

 commonly are not noticed until this time. Having nearly com- 

 pleted their growth, they of course forsake the tree which they 

 infest within a few days. Persons nut conversant with the hab- 

 its of these vermin, will hence suppose the remedy which they 



