DEFENSIVE MEASURES AGAINST SAPSUCKERS. 



97 



This advice applies to the planting of orchards also, as the risk of 

 damage by frost is lessened by planting on north slopes. It is said that 

 fine wire netting has been used in some localities to protect the 

 trunks of fruit trees, but this is impracticable for large numbers of 

 trees, while advice as to methods of planting does not apply to trees 

 at present subject to sapsucker attack. Good results have been 

 obtained b} T plastering cow droppings or fish glue around trees where 

 the sapsuckers have worked, and the wounds may be made to heal 

 more readily by cutting out the injured parts and covering with 

 grafting wax. 



When preventive measures fail and the extent of the damage war- 

 rants it, the birds must be killed. But such extreme measures should 

 be adopted only when 

 orchards or other valu- 

 able tree plantations 

 are attacked, and ex- 

 treme care should be 

 taken to kill only the 

 injurious species. 



It does not appear to 

 be difficult to poison 

 sapsuckers. Mr. Ell- 

 wood Cooper has kindly 

 furnished details of a 

 method of poisoning 

 used successfully by 

 himself in California, 

 of which the following 

 is the substance: I took 

 about one-half pint of 

 honey and pulverized 

 the crystals of strych- 

 nine, using about a 

 cofTeespoonful of the powder and making a thorough mixture. With 

 a wooden paddle I smeared the mixture around the trunk about 2 or 

 3 inches above the last ring of holes made by the birds. It proved 

 Very effective. This method has the advantage of insuring the 

 destruction of the sapsuckers, while the risk of destroying other birds 

 is reduced to a minimum. 



The method of poisoning may be stated in more exact terms as 

 follows: Mix thoroughly an eighth of an ounce of powdered strychnine 

 (the alkaloid, which is not easily soluble, and hence will not' flavor the 

 99068°— Bull. 39—11—7 



Red-headed woodpecker. Not a sapsucker. Has no black 

 spot on breast. 



