THE BROWN-TAIL 3I0TH IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 



By Clarence M. Weed, State Nursery Inspector 



Southeastern New Hampshire is now infested by the Brown- 

 tail Moth to an extent that threatens serious injury to the health 

 and wealth of the people of the state, unless remedial meas- 

 'ures are generally applied. This insect is capable of causing 

 serious losses in various ways, and it behooves every citizen 

 ■of the infested region to be constantly on the watch for it. 

 Fortunately it is peculiarly open to destruction during all the 

 winter months, on account of its curious habit of passing the 

 winter in leafy nests on the ends of the branches of trees and 

 shrubs. It has also food preferences among these trees and 

 shrubs, which lead it as a rule first to appear on pear, wild 

 cherry, apple, oak, and hawthorn. Consequently the people 

 of an infested locality have long months to look for these 

 winter nests, destroying them and thus leading to the exterm- 

 ination of the pest within their borders. 



So far as known the first colony of Brown-tail Moths was 

 found in New Hampshire December 7, 1899. It was taken 

 in Seabrook, near the Massachusetts line, and is illustrated in 

 •the figure on page 48. Since then the pest has evidently been 

 introduced again and again in different towns in the southern 

 part of the state, so that it need occasion no surprise if it be 

 found in almost any part of .Rockingham, Hillsborough, or 

 -Straftord counties. There is in fact great danger of its being 

 carried by electric cars, railroad trains, automobiles, and vehi- 

 cles generally to other parts of New Hampshire, so that there 

 is abundant occasion for every citizen of the state to be on the 

 .alert to suppress the pest at its first introduction. In a case 



