266 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Work of the Gypsy Moth the Past Summer. 



In the spring of 1902 the egg clusters of the moth were 

 present in large numbers in many sections of Arlington, 

 Medford, Maiden, Meh'ose, Saugus and elsewhere, and as 

 soon as the foliage developed, swarms of tiny gj'psy moth 

 caterpillars attacked it. At first the damage was little 

 noticed, but as the weeks passed and the caterpillars ap- 

 proached maturity it became only too apparent. Local 

 outbreaks nearly as severe as any of the earlier years of 

 1888-90 occurred in nearly all the worst infested towns. 

 From the rocky hilltops to the north of Boston one could 

 easil}^ detect many brown, stripped areas, contrasting sharply 

 with the normal green of the woodland. Feeding for a few 

 weeks in the colonies where they were hatched, the cater- 

 pillars soon exhausted the foliage supply, and then began 

 that characteristic migrating in swarms which renders them 

 such an annoying as well as dangerous pest. From the edge 

 of stripped woodlands the insects swept like a devouring 

 swarm over fruit and shade trees, over garden crops and 

 flowers, and even devoured the grass in every line of march. 



The experiences related by suffering householders as well 

 as the scenes to which this committee was an eye witness 

 simply beggar description. At Lynnfield a strip of woodland 

 half a mile long and from ten to twenty rods in width was 

 completely defoliated and left as bare and brown as if seared 

 by fire. Near the poor farm at Melrose some ten acres of 

 second-growth oak v^eve absolutely stripped of foliage ; the 

 trees are never more destitute of leaves in midwinter than 

 they were there in the middle of July, In the rear of the 

 Oak Grcfve station at Maiden a plot of old oak growth, 

 containing perhaps half an acre, was stripped ; and from the 

 trees overhanging the street the caterpillars dropped in such 

 numbers that passers-by were obliged to raise umbrellas to 

 protect their persons. Over the doors and in the cornices 

 of the station the caterpillars literally hung in festoons. 

 At Baker's Hill, Maiden, the swarming insects massed on 

 house walls obscured the color of the paint and made all a 

 uniform dark brown. 



