lO icONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 153- 



witlf long hairs which are finely barbed and brittle. These 

 break off, and, on coming in contact with the human skin, 

 cause great irritation and sometimes serious illness. The full- 

 grown caterpillar is represented by Figure 5, and Figure 6 

 shows the appearance of the web or winter nest. 



The caterpillars become full-grown the last of June, make 

 their cocoons at the tips of the twigs, often in a bunch of 

 leaves, and the moths emerge two. weeks later, or about the 

 middle of July. 



The moths are pure white except the end of the abdomen, 

 which is brown, giving it the name of brown-tail moth. The 



Fig. 8. — Tree pruner. 



female has a wing spread of about one and one-half inches, 

 while the male is somewhat smaller. (See Figure 7.) Both 

 sexes fly at night, and may be taken around electric lights. 



Means of Control. 



The best of all remedies against this insect is the destruc- 

 tion of the caterpillars in the winter webs or nests. The winter 

 nests can be readily seen on the twigs throughout the winter, 

 and these should be clipped off with a long-handled tree 

 pruner such as is shown in Figure 8, and gathered and burned. 

 The caterpillars are hibernating in these nests from October 

 to April. It is of no use to cut off the nests and leave them 



