49 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS • 



9-10 EDWARD VII., A. 1910 

 A DANGEROUS ENEMY. 



'With the exception of the San Jose Scale, there are no two insects which have 

 attracted so much public attention, nor with regard to which so much luoney has been 

 spent in America by the State and Federal Governments of the United States, as the 

 Gypsy Moth and the Brown-tail Moth. Both of those are pests introduced into 

 America from Europe — the Gypsy Moth about 1869, and the Brown-tail Moth some- 

 where about 1890. Millions of dollars have now been spent on fighting the Gypsy 

 Moth and the Brown-tail Moth in Massachusetts and the adjoining States. Dr. How- 

 ard, when treating of this insect and of an effort which is being made to introduce 

 European parasites says, in the Year-book of the Department of Agriculture for 1905 : 

 " The Brown-tail Moth has become even more abundant and injurious than the Gypsy 

 Moth, and, owing to the fact that the female flies readily, whereas the female of the 

 Gypsy Moth does not fly at all, the Brown-tail Moth has far exceeded the Gypsy Moth 

 in its spread." 



PLANTS INJURED. 



' These caterpillars injure nearly all of the large and small fruits, and many 

 perennial plants. The pear and apple seem to be favourites; but stone fruits, elms, 

 maples and the oak are also commonly injured. A list of over 80 different kinds of 

 food plants was published in 1903. Thousands of fruit trees in the vicinity of Boston, 

 Dr. Howard says, have been killed by the Brown-tail Moth. 



THE BROWN-TAIL RASH. 



' Not only are the caterpillars of this insect voracious feeders upon the foliage of 

 many kinds of trees, but they cause much annoyance from their stinging hairs, which 

 cause excessive irritation when they come in contact with the human skin. Each hair 

 is barbed, and at the time the cocoons are spun these hairs are broken off and carried 

 by the wind, when they fall on the neck and other exposed parts of the body, giving 

 rise to a painful rash, which is very serious with some people, even although they 

 may not have actually touched the caterpillars. Dr. Howard's assistants who have been 

 working on this insect, have suffered very severely; and persons engaged in removing 

 the nests from trees in the winter time must be careful not to handle these nests too 

 freely, or they may be inconvenienced by this rash. The nests should be cut off from 

 the trees, placed in a basket with as little handling as possible, and burnt at once. Dr. 

 Howard states that " a large part of the popular feeling in New England that the 

 Brown-tail Moth must be exterminated, is due as much to the annoyance of this rash 

 as to the loss of vegetation from the caterpillars." As a remedy for this rash a free 

 \ise of vaseline is recommended. 



DESCRIPTION OF INSECT. 



' The Brown-tail Moth resembles very closely the well-known Fall Webworm, being 

 of a beautiful pure white, except the tip of the body, which in both sexes is brown, and 

 from which the popular name is derived. The female bears at the tip of the body an 

 almost globular tuft of brown hairs. Both sexes fly freely, and are much attracted to 

 lights — a fact of some importance as affecting their spread. The search-lights of 

 night-sailing passenger steamers have attracted so many as to have drawn the atten- 

 tion of the officers of such vessels, who reported that moths had alighted upon their 

 ships in great numbers in the vicinity of Boston about midnight on several occasions, 

 and the introduction of the species at more than one seaport in Maine is attributed by 

 Dr. Howard to vessels coming from the infested districts rather than by natural spread 

 by direct flight. 



