16 REPORT <>! TIIK COMMISSIONERS OF 



from severe injury. The masses of caterpillars found on the larger limbs and trunk- 

 can be crushed in large numbers with a stiff broom or thickly gloved hands. A more 

 agreeable method is spraying these clusters with kerosene emulsion, whale oil soap 

 solution (one pound to four gallons), or pouring boiling water over them. For 

 methods of preparing kerosene emulsion, see a subsequent pu^v. 



Thorough spraying with any one of the poisons described on a preceding page and 

 in the manner directed, will kill these caterpillars very quickly. If they are nearly 

 full grown and many are crawling to the sprayed trees from others, it is perfectly 

 possible that all the foliage may be devoured before the caterpillars have eaten enough 

 poison to kill them, but under most circumstances there need be little fear of the 

 arsenical spray proving ineffective. The cost attendant upon this method will lead 

 people to depend largely on other means. Even a hand spraying outfit requires 

 some outlay, while if many trees are to be sprayed a power outfit, described on a 

 preceding page, is the most economical in the long run. 



After the damage has been done, many of the insects are within man's power and 

 can be killed in their cocoons. From about the middle to the last of June, thousands 

 of cocoons can be collected with little labor, and if this is done, opportunity should be 

 given the parasites to escape before the cocoons are destroyed, as stated on a 

 preceding page. Every healthy female pupa killed means one less egg mass to 

 produce its approximately 150 hungry caterpillars another spring. During the 

 summer of 1899, many hundreds of cocoons were collected and destroyed. Local 

 authorities in Glens Falls, Saratoga Springs and several other villages offered the school 

 children ten cents a quart for these cocoons. In Glens Falls, alone, 1,350 quarts of 

 cocoons were destroyed through the efforts of the school children. 



jeopard 



Zcuzcra pyrina Fabr. 



In New York and vicinity, dead limbs may frequently be seen projecting above 

 the leafy masses of many trees. These dead limbs and the sudden wilting of living 

 ones are, in most cases, the effects of the destructive borings of the caterpillar of the 

 leopard moth. This is probably the worst insect enemy of shade trees in the vicinity 

 of New York city. It not only bores in slender twigs, but as the caterpillar increases 

 in size it enters larger limbs and frequently works serious injury in the trunk before 

 attaining its growth. 



Description. This insect is most easily recognized in connection with its work. 

 Boring within the smaller twigs, there may be found a pinkish or white caterpillar 



