REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I905 lO/ 



The above gives some idea of the general conditions of our 

 shade trees and of the large values represented by them. The 

 season of 1905 was characterized by very severe injury to shade 

 trees by tussock moth caterpillars. This was particularly true 

 in the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Geneva, Syracuse and Utica 

 and many thousands of beautiful shade trees adorning their streets 

 and those of other cities and villages were partially or entirely 

 defoliated by this pest, which is more or less injurious from year 

 to year. This has been specially marked in the city of Buffalo, 

 where the horse-chestnuts at least are far from being models and 

 some of the other shade trees are in very poor condition. These 

 depredations resulted in a great many newspaper notices, and 

 beyond a brief characterization of the injury nothing more com- 

 prehensive was urged than the somewhat makeshift recommenda- 

 tion that the conspicuous egg masses be removed through the 

 efforts of school children or by general cooperation. Rochester 

 undertook this work and appropriated $500 for the purpose of 

 paying school children so much a quart for the egg masses. 

 Interest was further stimulated by offering prizes to a few obtain- 

 ing the largest number. Newspaper items in November state that 

 the plan has not been entirely successful, only $7 of the $500 hav- 

 ing been claimed by the children. There is no doubt but what the 

 tussock moth can be controlled by collecting egg masses and where 

 a large amount of enthusiasm and push is behind the effort it is 

 possible to have this done by school children, as was demonstrated 

 in Rochester some 10 years ago. This method of combating an 

 insect pest is open to several objections. In the first place it is 

 sporadic in nature and rarely becomes effective till public opinion 

 is aroused, and this latter does not usually occur till after the 

 trees have suffered serious injury and in some cases not even then. 

 The value represented by our shade trees leads us to question the 

 wisdom of exposing them to serious injury for the sake of saving 

 a very small percentage of their value. It seems as though the 

 time is ripe to make more comprehensive plans for the protection 

 of our trees, particularly as there are other insects to be checked 

 beside the one mentioned above, and unfortunately some of these 

 are nnich more dif^cult to control. The dm leaf beetle and the 

 associated elm bark louse are botii exceedingly destructive to elms 

 in the Hudson valley and are likely to cause equally great injurv 

 in other cities and villages in the State. The soft maples [pi. i] 

 in and about New York city are affected by a very pernicious borer. 



