Circular No. 164. Issu^dJanuary 17, 1913. 



United States Department of Agriculture: 



BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



L. O. HOWARD, Entomologist and Chief of Bureau. 



THE GIPSY MOTH AS A FOREST INSECT, WITH SUGGESTIONS AS 



TO ITS CONTROL.' 



By W. F. FiSKE, 

 Agent and Expert. 



THE GIPSY-MOTH SITUATION: PAST AND PRESENT. 



It has been said of the gipsy moth that the catei-j^illar is almost 

 omnivorous so far as foHage is concerned, and the early reports pub- 

 lished by the State Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts abound in 

 references confirmatory of this statement. It is in fact incontro- 

 vertible, from the mass of evidence furnished by these reports as well 

 as by the contemporaneous accounts in the press, that the gipsy moth 

 was formerly almost unique amongst injurious insects in its abihty 

 to destroy all sorts of vegetation. Upon the occasion of its historic 

 outbreak in Medford and Maiden, beginning about 1889, and again in 

 the larger outbreak following a few years after the exterrmnation 

 work was concluded in 1900, not only forest, shade, and ornamental 

 trees but orchards, gardens, and fields were defoliated and devastated. 

 And when the food supply was exhausted the starving caterpillars, by 

 force of numbers alone, constituted a veritable plague, rendering the 

 streets almost impassable to pedestrians, massing upon and entering 

 houses, and infesting the bedrooms, the kitchens, and even the dining 

 tables as well as all outdoors. 



It is needless to state that these conditions no longerprevail. Cater- 

 pillars there are, during their season; egg masses in varying abundance 

 are everywhere to be found m neglected woodlands, and thousands 

 of dead and d3dng trees stand as evidence that unless it be rendered 

 still further innocuous the gipsy moth is still a very living factor to be 

 considered in the future of American forestry. But the accounts of 

 its earlier depredations seem all but incredible when compared with 

 conditions to-day. It is no longer prominent as a field and garden pest . 



1 A consideration of the parasites of the gipsy moth (Porthelria dispar L.), the "wilt" disease, and the 

 natural resistance of certain species of trees to attack by the gipsy moth, as applied to the management of 

 forests. 



1 



