558 



Bulletin 170. 



Our orchardists should learn to familarize themselves with the 

 egg-masses of the apple tent caterpillar, for one of the easiest and 

 most effectual methods of controlling the pest is to collect 

 and burn these egg-masses at any time between August and the 



following April ; the egg- 

 mass is very similar to, but 

 a little larger than that of 

 the forest tent caterpillar 

 shown at e in figure 102. 

 Pay the boys and girls a 

 few cents for each score or 

 hundred of the egg-masses 

 they collect ; you will be 

 doubly repaid when spring 

 opens by a decided scarcity 

 of caterpillar nests to wipe 

 or burn out. Those who 

 spray their orchards thor- 

 oughly with Bordeaux mix- 

 ture, to which Paris green 

 or some similar poison has 

 been added at the rate of 

 one pound to 150 gallons of 

 the Bordeaux, report little 

 trouble in controlling apple 

 tent caterpillars by this 

 method alone. Caterpillar 

 nests are usually a scarce 

 article in orchards which 

 have had three thorough 

 applications of the above 

 spray. The first applica- 

 tion should be made just 

 before the blossoming per- 

 iod, when the caterpillars are very small and require butlittle poison 

 to kill them ; the second spraying should follow as soon as the 

 blossoms have fallen , and a third application is usually necessary and 

 advisable about a week or ten days after the second. Unless 

 canker-worms occur in extraordinary numbers in an orchard, 



\o\.—A trio of Apple Tent Caterpillars, 

 natural size. 



