39 2 



BUGS, INSECTS, ETC —REMEDIES FOR. 



their work on the green tassel, as it has 

 been observed in New Jersey, and do 

 not believe that they do so work with us. 

 Consequently it would avail nothing as a 

 preventive measure, to break off and 

 destroy the tassel, and the only remedy 

 when they infest corn is to kill them by 

 hand. By going over a field when the 

 ears are in silk, the presence of the worms 

 can be detected by the silk being prema- 

 turely dry or by its being partially eaten. 



In the South various plans have been 

 adopted to head off the Boll-worm, but 

 we believe none have proved very suc- 

 cessful. The following experiment with 

 vinegar and molasses was made by B. 

 A. Sorsby, of Columbus, Ga., as quoted 

 by Mr. Glover: 



" We procured eighteen common-sized 

 dinner plates, into each of which we put 

 .a gill of vinegar and molasses, previously 

 prepared in the proportion of four parts 

 of the former to one of the latter. These 

 plates were set on small stakes or poles 

 • driven into the ground in the cotton 

 field, one to about each three acres, and 

 reaching a little above the cotton plant, 

 with a six-inch square board tacked on 

 the top to receive the plate. These 

 arrangements were made in the evening, 

 : soon after the flies had made their appear- 

 ance; the next morning we found 

 eighteen to thirty-five moths to each 

 plate. The experiment was continued 

 lor five or six days, distributing the plates 

 overthe entire field; each day's success 

 increasing until the numbers were reduced 

 to two or three moths to each plate, when 

 it was abandoned as being no longer 

 worthy of the trouble. The crop that 

 year was but very little injured by the 

 Boll-worm. The flies were caught in 

 their eagerness to feed upon the mixture 

 by alighting in it and being unable to 

 <escape." 



FALL WEBB WORN.— The Tent- 

 caterpillar of the Forest and the com- 

 mon Orchard Tent-caterpillar are often 

 confounded with another, which in re- 

 ality has nothing in common with them, 

 except that it spins a web. The insect 

 we refer to is known by the appropriate 

 name of Fall Web- worm, and whenever 

 we hear accounts of the Tent-caterpillars 

 taking possession of trees and doing great 

 injury in the fall of the year (and we do 

 .hear such accounts quite often), we may 



rest assured that the Fall Web-worm is 

 the culprit, and has been mistaken for the 

 Tent-caterpillars, which never appear at 

 that season of the year. 



We do not know how injurious this in- 

 sect is in the more Southern States, but 

 he who travels in the fall of the year, with 

 an eye to the beauties of the landscape, 

 through any of the Northern and Middle 

 States, especially towards the Atlantic 

 sea-board, will find the beauty fearfully 

 marred by the innumerable webs or nests 

 of this worm. The Web-worm is found 



Fig. 34.— Fall Webb Worm. 

 on a great many kinds of trees, though 

 on some more abundantly than others ; 

 but with the exception of the different 

 grape-vines, the evergreens, the sumachs 

 and the Ailanthus, scarcely any tree or 

 shrub seems to come amiss to its vora- 

 cious appetite. 



Remedies. — As, therefore, nothing can 

 be done to materially affect this insect 

 during the winter, we must do all the fight- 

 ing when the worms first hatch. Their web 

 soon betrays them, and the twig or branch 

 containing it may be pruned off in the 

 same manner described for the Tent- Cat- 

 erpillars. As the worms are always un- 

 der the tent, the operation in this case 

 can be performed at any time of the day 

 without the risk of missing any wan- 

 derers. 



TENT-CATERPILLAR of the FOR- 

 EST.— The Tent-caterpillar of the Forest 

 differs from the common Orchard Tent- 

 caterpillar principally in its egg-mass be- 

 ing docked off squarely, instead of being 

 rounded at each end; in its larva having 

 a row of spots along the back, instead of 

 a continuous narrow line, and in its moth 

 having the color between the oblique 

 lines on the front wings as dark, or else 

 darker, instead of lighter than the rest of 

 the wing. It feeds on a variety of both 



