THE LEOPARD MOTH. 9 
For stopping the holes after injecting the liquid, putty and moist 
clay, advised by some, have been found practically useless. Grafting 
wax, on the other hand, gives perfect satisfaction. Coal tar is less 
advisable but may be substituted for the latter, or the holes may be 
closed by inserting a wooden plug and breaking or sawing it off 
even with the trunk. In any case the stopper should be tight, to 
exclude water from rains, which might tend to produce decomposi- 
tion of the surrounding wood or invite the entrance of other insects, 
like carpenter and other ants and secondary borers, of which there 
are many species, and injurious fungi. 
Carbon bisulphid should be handled with the usual precautions 
against fire, which means that the operator should not smoke while 
at work. Although the fumes should not be inhaled, as they are 
poisonous, the liquid will not injure ordinary trees when applied as 
described and does no harm to the hands. 
KILLING WITH WIRES. 
It is possible to reach and destroy many larve by forcing a copper 
or other pliable wire into the channels. This is a well-known borer 
remedy. It is impossible, however, by this means to kill the insects 
in all cases, owing to the length or crookedness of the burrows. Bi- 
sulphid of carbon should then be used. 
ATTRACTING TO LIGHTS. 
To what extent electric or other bright lights are serviceable as an 
agency in the destruction of the moths of this borer has not been defi- 
nitely determined, but they possess a certam value. A method fre- 
quently advised consists in placing shallow pans around electric-light 
poles in and about parks to attract the moths. The pans are partially 
filled with water, and a small quantity: of kerosene is poured into 
them. The moths flying against the globes drop into the pans and are 
promptly killed when they come in contact with the oil. In this way 
many males can be destroyed. 
TREE INSPECTION.1! 
In large parks the destruction wrought by this borer annually 
is an important item, and it will be found profitable to establish a 
system of inspection consisting in the employment of park keepers 
1 During the last years of the nineteenth century a long row of beautiful red oaks bor- 
dering the street between the grounds of the Department of Agriculture and those of the 
Smithsonian Institution were badly infested by the related carpenter worm (Prionozystus 
robiniae Forst.). Nearly every tree was infested, and frequently two or three burrows 
showed near the tops of the trunks. Bisulphid of carbon was applied, as described above, 
and the holes closed with grafting wax. A year later no insects could be found at work, 
but wherever this remedy had been applied a small scar remained. Two years later these 
had entirely disappeared, and the trees looked as if they had never been infested. 
