216 INSECTS 
bushes the same as the first brood, and after passing the 
winter in that condition appear as adults the next spring to 
repeat the history. 
The usual remedy is to spray the foliage with hellebore, 
applying it as soon as the worms begin to hatch out. 
Measuring Worms or canker worms are familiar pests 
that devour the foliage of shade trees and fruit trees. They 
are called measuring worms on account of 
their peculiar mode of walking. They seem 
to measure off the distance ininches. These 
creatures are caterpillars — the larve of a 
moth. The adult female is wingless, but 
the male has wings like other moths. At 
the close of the eating season in summer the 
“worms”’ lower themselves to the ground 
by spinning a silken thread. Then they 
burrow in the ground a few inches and are 
changed into pup, and later into the adult 
forms. 
SPRING CANKER Early in the spring they come forth 
Worm or MEAs: and return to the tree, the female being 
URING WorM 
obliged to crawl up the trunk as she has 
no wings. There she soon lays her eggs, and by the time 
the leaves appear the young measuring worms are ready for 
the feast. If all this did not take place before the arrival 
of the birds they would prevent it. As it is, our few winter 
birds, especially the chickadees, do their best, and eat great 
quantities of the female moths and the eggs. It is easy, 
however, for a person to prevent the moths from climbing 
the trees by painting a band of coal tar and oil around the 
trunks at the close of winter, before the ascent of the tree 
by the female is begun. 
