G 



HoiD to Destroy Them. 



" All the masses of eggs should be scraped from the trees 

 and other places where the females have deposited them 

 and burned. Crushing is not sufficient, as possibly some 

 might escape uninjured. This should be done in the fall, 

 winter or early spring, before the eggs hatch. It is not at 

 all probable that one will find all the egg-masses, even with 

 the most careful searching on the trees in a small orchard ; 

 but when one remembers that this insect deposits its eggs on 

 all kinds of shade and forest trees also, it appears a hopeless 

 task to exterminate this pest by an attempt to destroy the 

 eggs. It is a habit of these caterpillars, after they have 

 emerged, to cluster together on the trunks or branches of the 

 trees between the times of feeding, and this affords an oppor- 

 tunit}^ of destroying vast numbers by crushing them ; and 

 after they have changed to puptB they may be destroyed 

 wherever they can be found. The female moths are so slug- 

 gish in their flight, and so conspicuous, that they may be 

 easily captured and destroyed as soon as they emerge ; yet 

 any one or all of these methods, which have been employed 

 in Europe, are not sufficient for their extermination. At 

 l)est they will only reduce the numbers more or less accord- 

 ing to the thoroughness with which the work has been done. 

 I could not learn that any attempts have ever been made in 

 Europe to destroy this insect by means of poisonous insecti- 

 cides, and it is to this method that we may look for positive 

 results in this country. 



" If all the trees in the infested region be thoroughly show- 

 ered with Paris green in water, one pound to one hundred 

 and fifty gallons, soon after the hatching of the eggs in the 

 spring, the young caterpillars will surely be destroyed, and 

 if any escape it will be because of some neglect or igno- 

 rance in the use of the insecticide. It loill he absolutely 

 necessary to sJioiver every tree and shrub in that region, for 

 if a single tree be neglected, it may jneld a crop sufficiently 

 large to eventually restock the region. 



"I can hardly feel confident that all these insects can be 

 exterminated in one year, but if this work of showering the 

 trees be continued during the months of A})ril and May for 



