The Brown Tail Moth, the Worst Flying Pest of Our Trees 



By Luke J. Doogue, Massachusetts 



Poisoned by the brown tail. The long hairs 

 shed, by the caterpillar pierce the skin and cause 

 serious irritation which is not easily relieved. Dur- 

 ing many successive summers the effect of this 

 poisoning is apt to be felt by anyone who has 

 been thus afflicted. The children are the greatest 

 sufferers 



l'X 

















'i '"'■ 







■I'i^ i 



( "' ' 





'JP^^^H 









i 





In this basket there are about 1,500 nests and each 

 nest contains on an average 400 brown tail cater- 

 pillars. Good sized nests "will hold as many as 1,000 

 bugs 



The female brown tail lays her eggs in the late 

 summer. The caterpillars, after hatching out, feed 

 for a short time and then spin their winter -webs by 

 wrapping a number of leaves together with a fine 

 web. These webs are generally found at the tips of 

 branches. The brown tail appears with the first 

 warm days of spring 



Pear and apple trees are much liked and great nests 

 are made on them. Pick off every nest. Poles are 

 handy for this 



Light has a great attraction for the moths, and 

 they may often be seen in thousands crawling up 

 the electric light posts 



The furnace is the proper place to put all nests. If 

 burned outside there is always great liability of 

 dropping some 



Burning brown tail nests is not easy, as the web is 

 something like asbestos in composition. Keep up a very 

 hot fire until the last nest is destroyed 



Expert climbers are necessary on tall 

 trees. When the nest is cut off some one 

 must be watching it to pick it up. 



283 



One hundred and sixty-nine fruit trees were stripped 

 bare by brown tails in one orchard in Georgetown, Mass., 

 last summer 



