37 



Where such mutual help cannot be obtained, and the moth is allowed 

 to increase on neighboring estates, there is availa!)le for use the tinal 

 method of banding the trees with some sticky material, such as raupen- 

 leim, or its American substitute, bodlime. Tar or printer's ink or even 

 sticky fly paper are also used for this purpose. These bands should be 

 l^ut on as soon as the eggs hatch in the spring, and should be kept fresh 

 and sticky throughout the summer. Their eiiect is to preserve the trees 

 from damage by migrating hordes of caterpillars. 



The Bkown-tail Moth. 

 The European brown-tail moth was first found in Massachusetts in 

 May, 1897. In Europe it has been known as a common pest of fruit 

 trees for generations. In fact, the earliest works on fruit-tree insects 



Fig. 6. Winter web 

 of browD-tail moth 

 caterpillars. 



Fig. 7. Brown-tail moth 

 caterpillar, enlarged. 



mention this pest as being one of the most common. When one consid- 

 ers the strange habits of the caterpillars in wintering in the webs at the 

 tips of the twigs, coupled with the fact that large quantities of orna- 

 mental shrubs are annually imported from Europe to this country, the 

 wonder is not so much that the pest finally found its way here but that it 

 did not reach us much sooner. It is, however, reiuai'kal)le that two such 

 notorious pests as the gypsy and brown-tail moths should have been 

 transported thousands of miles across the sea, one purposely and the 

 other accidentally, and both become colonized in eastern Massachusetts, 

 and within five miles of each other. 



The first outbreak of the Ijrown-tail moth covered only a i'ew square 

 miles in Somerville and Cambridge. It was sufficient, however, to yield 

 an immense swarm of moths, which flew or were drifted by a high wind 

 throughout the whole north-eastern section of the State. In the case of 



