EXPLORERS OE A NEW KIND 



65 



at certain times of the year hairs are 

 actually floating about in the air. At the 

 time of the caterpillars' change of skin, 

 and particularly at the time of the spin- 

 ning of the cocoon and the final change, 

 certain of these hairs appear to become 

 loosened in such a way that they are car- 

 ried by the wind. Some people have 

 been made seriously ill by this so-called 

 rash and it is the cause of great annoy- 

 ance. 



The prevalence of the brown-tail in 

 the New Hampshire woods has undoubt- 

 edly lessened the pleasure of many peo- 

 ple in their summer camps. Persons en- 

 gaged in removing the nests from the 

 trees in the winter time, carrying them 

 away to be burned, also suffer from this 

 rash, although the trouble is not so great 

 in the winter time as in the summer, since 

 during warm weather the pores of the 

 skin are more open and receptive to the 

 hairs. 



A large part of the popular feeling in 

 New England that the brown-tail must be 

 exterminated is due quite as much to the 

 prevalence and annoyance of this rash as 

 to the loss of vegetation from the work 

 ^ of the caterpillars. While it is true that 

 most of the Long Island summer resorts 

 are seaside resorts, where there is not 

 much foliage, still there are others where 

 the presence of the brown-tail moth will 

 result in deterring visitors. 



Further than the actual harm to the 

 skin, the broken hairs which float in the 

 air when the caterpillars or webs or 

 cocoons are disturbed also cause severe 

 internal irritation and poisoning. The 

 death of one man employed in the moth 

 work in New England was due to severe 

 internal poisoning of this kind. 



Underclothes and bedding put out upon 

 the line in caterpillar season collect the 

 floating hairs and when used may result 

 in serious poisoning. Doctor Tyzzer, of 

 the Harvard Medical School, has inves- 

 tigated this rash, and concludes that the 

 barbed hairs not only cause a mechanical 

 irritation, but that they contain a poison 

 which acts directly on the corpuscles of 

 the blood. 



No remedies suggested are wholly effi- 

 cacious. Applications which are cooling 

 to the skin, such as witch-hazel or alco- 



hol, allay the irritation to some extent 

 and reduce the suffering. No effective 

 remedy has been found for internal irri- 

 tation. A formula which has been in fre- 

 quent use in New England and which is 

 good as a skin application is : 



Menthol lo grains 



Zinc oxide 2 drams 



Lime water 8 ounces 



Carbolic acid 15 drops 



SOME NATURAI, ENEMIES 



Especially interesting and important 

 among the imported natural enemies of 

 both the gipsy and brown-tail moths are 

 the Calosoma beetles, and notably Calo- 

 soma sycophanta (see page 53) . We have 

 a number of species of the genus Calo- 

 soma in the United States, but they are 

 distinctly ground-beetles, whereas in Eu- 

 rope Calosoma sycophanta climbs trees 

 readily, and its larvae also climb the tall- 

 est trees in search of such leaf-feeding 

 caterpillars as it may find crawling on the 

 trunks and larger branches. Early at- 

 tempts to introduce this insect into the 

 United States through correspondents 

 were failures. 



One naturalist in the south of France 

 once sent over a package in which he 

 separated the individual beetles in match- 

 boxes, putting in each box a meal-worm 

 for food for the beetle. Unfortunately, 

 on arrival in Washington, it was found 

 that in every case the meal-worm had 

 killed the beetle. There were many fail- 

 ures until the best method of sendmg by 

 mail was discovered, and since that time 

 it has been possible to bring over large 

 numbers in living and healthy condition. 



In all, 4,046 living specimens of C. 

 sycophanta have been imported from 

 Europe. Sixty-seven per cent of these 

 beetles were liberated in field colonies 

 and the balance were used for experi- 

 mental and reproduction work. So suc- 

 cessful has been this rather difficult work, 

 under the direction of Mr. A. E. Burgess, 

 of Boston, that this beetle now occupies 

 a very large territory in New England, 

 and undoubtedly several millions were at 

 work last summer. 



Everywhere through the woodlands 

 about Boston these beetles were to be 

 found in nearly all stages actively at work 



