SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF INSECT CONTROL 159 



found in your neighborhood. Compare results of different 

 methods of combating it. From the data obtainable can you 

 foretell the probable result? Will the home fruit trees be 

 killed and the fruit industry confined to commercial orchard- 

 ists who will care for their trees ? 



Gypsy moth. This pest is a European species. It was in- 

 troduced into this country in 1869 by a Frenchman who was 



FIG. 78. Outdoor laboratory work 

 Class inspecting a local nursery for San Jose' scale 



attempting to improve our native silkworms. Through acci- 

 dent the insects escaped, but although the fact was reported, 

 the grave danger was not realized until twenty years later. 

 From a single nest in Medford, Massachusetts, the pest spread, 

 slowly at first, and then like wild fire, over the towns and for- 

 ests of New England. Millions of dollars have been expended 

 in its control, yet hundreds of acres of forest have been de- 

 stroyed. A report of 1897 says, "At the present time there 

 can be little doubt that the extermination of the insect is 



