APPLE AND "WALNUT LEAF CRUMPLER8. 121 



NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL REMEDIES. 



The Phyciia nebulo may be called a troublesome, rather than a very 

 noxious insect, THej always render the trees unsightly by the tufts 

 of crumpled leaves which they tie together and partially devour ; and 

 they sometimes multiply so as to considerably damage young trees. 

 If they are unusually numerous they can be checked, to some extent, 

 by throwing air-slaked lime, soap suds, or Paris green water upon the 

 trees; not by any direct injury to them, for they are so protected, both 

 by their cases and the crumpled leaves, that such applications could 

 scarcely reach them — but by rendering the foliage distasteful or poison- 

 ons to them. But the true remedy is to pick off the crumpled leaves, 

 with the inclosed larvas, in the winter or early spring, at which times 

 they form conspicuous objects upon the leafless trees. 



In a recent article upon this insect, in the "Prairie Farmer," by Mr. 

 B. D. Wier, a very good suggestion is made, namely : that the crum- 

 pled leaves and the inclosed worms should not be burned or otherwise 

 destroyed, but that they should be taken to some distance from the fruit 

 trees which they are known to infest, and there left unharmed. The 

 result will be that the worms will starve, whilst the useful parasites 

 will be permitted to escape. 



As a general rule, however, they may be safely left to the operation 

 of natural agencies. Both birds and parasitic insects prey upon them 

 to a very considerable extent. Mr. Walsh reared a species of Tackina 

 from them, but said he had detected no parasitic Ichneumon-fly infest- 

 ing them. Last winter Mr. B. D. Wier sent me some of the cones of 

 this insect infested by small white worms, which were evidently the 

 larvae of some Eymenopterous insect; and in the summer following, 

 frem about two dozen cones, I obtained but three moths (July 7th, 12th 

 and 16th). The rest were destroyed by parasites, of which I obtained 

 two Ichneumon-flies of the same species, upward of a dozen individuals 

 of a minute Chalcis-fly, and three specimens of a small species of 

 Tachina. So that, notwithstanding their natural protections, they ap- 

 pear to have their full share of parasitic enemies. 



Winter birds also feed upon them. Mr. A. R. Whitney, of Franklin 

 Grove, stated to me that these insects have been much less numerous 

 in his nursery of late years than formerly. He said that he had 

 often seen quails jump two feet and upwards from the ground and 

 seize the crumpled leaves in which these worms were concealed, and 

 that he had seen numbers of these tufts scattered upon the ground 

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