15 



easily accessible woodland are to be sprayed, the use of a power 

 outfit is to be recommended. Steam or gasoline engine sprayers 

 are not so economical of the spray as hand pumps, but make a 

 great saving in the cost of labor. Furthermore, with a properly 

 equipped power outfit the work can be done with the greatest 

 possible rapidity. Where arsenate of lead cannot be obtained, 

 Paris green, one pound to one hundred and fifty gallons of water, 

 may be used, but it should be borne in mind that this insecticide 

 often scorches the foliage, and that it washes off with the first rain. 

 Arsenate of lead is not open to these objections. 



Burning over infested wood or brush land in May or June is a 

 very eflEective method of destroying gypsy moth caterpillars, and is 

 the logical complement to the method of egg killing by burning 

 previously described. The trees and bushes should be cut before 

 the hatching time of the eggs, and may be left lying as they fall. 

 A few trees should be left standing, 

 and to these such caterpillars as escape 

 the burning will resort for food, and 

 they may then be killed by spraying or 

 by burlapping, as described farther on. 

 The burning of the fallen trees and 

 brush should be done when the cater- 

 pillars are very young and small. At 

 this time they quickly succumb to flame. 

 When the caterpillars are older, burn- 

 ing is less effective. 



If a strip of burlap or other coarse, 

 cheap cloth is tied about an infested 

 tree trunk by the middle, in such manner that the flaps hang 

 down, the caterpillars, as soon as they have acquired the night- 

 feeding habit, will gather under the cloth and can then be 

 destroyed by crushing or by cutting with a sheath knife. The 

 burlaps should be examined daily, or, when the caterpillars are in 

 great numbers in a locality, several times a day. Burlap can be 

 successfully employed from the latter half of May to the first or 

 middle of August, for the caterpillars commonly pupate under 

 burlap and winged moths lay many eggs under it. It should be 

 borne in mind that the cloth band is in no sense a tree protector ; 

 nor is it a trap. Its function is simply to give the shelter which 

 the caterpillars seek by day. Serving as it does as a hiding place 

 for various insects, it is better off the tree than on unless it can be 

 attended to and kept clean. At the end of the caterpillar season, 

 all burlaps should be removed and burned. To insure best results 



Fig. 8. — Manner of applying the 

 burlap. 



