56 THE TENT CATERPILLAR 



pillar lead me to believe that it is not good policy to depend 

 upon them for subduing the pests. It will be much better for 

 the intelligent people of each community to attempt to arouse 

 public opinion so that each man will destroy the caterpillars 

 upon his own premises and along the adjoining roadsides. 



METHODS OF DESTROYING TENT CATERPIL- 

 LARS 



The tent caterpillar is open to attack in a variety of ways, 

 and should by no means be allowed to injure orchards and dis- 

 figure the roadsides as it has been doing recently. Beginning 

 with the eggs the principal remedial measures may be summa- 

 rized as follows : 



1. Destroying the Eggs. — During winter and early spring 

 the egg masses may readily be seen upon the smaller branches, 

 and are easily removed and burned. In this work boys may be 

 employed to advantage ; their sharp eyes and nimble limbs are 

 likely to accomplish as much as their elders. A few winters 

 since a society in a Massachusetts town offered prizes to the 

 youngsters of the community for the collection of the tent 

 caterpillar egg-masses, and thousands were thus destroj'ed. 

 The same result may to a large extent be accomplished by cut- 

 ting off and burning the thickets of wild cherry that line the 

 roadsides, and stand in clusters in pastures and fields. This 

 should be done after the eggs are laid, and before they are 

 hatched — any time between September ist and April ist would 

 do. If in a given community the eggs on these wild cherries 

 were thus destroyed the next season's crop of worms would be 

 greatly lessened, and attention could be concentrated on the 

 tents in the orchards. Such a burning of the wild cherry would 

 also destroy millions of spores of black knot — the fungous dis- 

 ease that is always threatening cultivated plums and cherries 

 because of its almost universal presence on the wild cherries. 

 The pest-breeding, neglected apple trees bearing natural fruit, 

 so often seen along the roadside, should also be converted into 

 firewood, and the branches burned during fall or winter. 



2. Killing the Young Caterpillars. — When the caterpillars 

 are young and the nests are small, it is easy to destroy the 



