306 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Jul^, 1919 



Ihnv Ca.iiulas timber may reach foreign marluls in future, thereby ameliorating the shipping 



problem. Picture show.s Benson log rafts moored in San Diego harbor 



after a journey of 1,200 miles by ocean from the Columbia River. 



PASSING OF THE BALSAM BUDWORM IN N. B. 



B^ John D. Tothill, in charge of Natural Control Investigations. 

 Dominion Entomological Laboratory, Fredericton, N.B. 



Shall We Have Another Outbreak? — Damage 



May Be Prevented by Allov^ing No Solid 



Stands of Fir. 



We are frequently asked what effect will the 

 present outbreak of the Spruce Budworm have 

 upon the status of the tree more particularly 

 affected, namely the Balsam Fir. The outbreak 

 in question is practically confined to part of 

 the New Brunswick forest and it is to this area 

 that the following remarks will apply. 



First of all, however, what is the Spruce Bud- 

 worm? Many readers who have visited the New 

 Brunswick woods during the past few years will 

 know that most of the fir boughs cut in June and 

 early July have not been fit for making up a 

 bough bed. They have been filled with cater- 

 pillars which are those of the Spruce Budworm. 

 Again some have seen in July areas of our for- 

 est having the appearance of being scorched as 

 if by a light fire; this appearance has been 

 caused by the budworm caterpillars eating away 

 the new needles, the remnants of which have 

 turned brown. Some again will remember the 

 clouds of little moths that accumulated around 



the arc lights of Fredericton and other cities 

 toward the latter part of July in 1913 and 1914. 

 The caterpillars of the boughs had become full 

 fed and had turned into chrysalids and from the 

 chrysalids had emerged the winged moths. The 

 winter stage is less conspicuous. After pairing 

 the female moth lays batches of green colored 

 eggs on the needles of fir and spruce ; the eggs 

 hatch in August and the resulting caterpillars 

 seek out a sheltered crevice in the bark; here 

 they spin a silken case and spend the winter. 

 In the following May the tiny caterpillars come 

 out of their shelter and climb to the opening 

 buds where they feed upon the new foliage. 

 These tiny insects soon grow mto the cater- 

 pillars of the boughs that we have already re- 

 ferred to. 



The Degrees of Injury. 

 So much then for the nature of the insect. 

 As to what it does we have already noted that 

 its caterpillars destroy the tender foliage of fir 



