September, 1906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



177 



Tussock Larvae at Work 



Arsenical Spray on Leaves and Fruit 



fessor Volck. The tussock moth develops into the caterpillar 

 state in sixty days and remains in the pupa state twenty days. 

 The adult begins laying its eggs as soon as it emerges and 

 lives for a couple of days. Its life as a moth lasts about 

 twelve days. 



The extent of the ravages of the tussock moth can be un- 

 derstood when by actual test it has been found that trees 

 from which the egg balls have not been gathered lost 67.5 

 per cent, of the crop while those which were carefully treated 

 lost but 23.5 per cent. Where care was used, as a test, the 

 loss was only 16 per cent. 



Another method was resorted to, extremely laborious but 

 effective, by digging trenches at the base of the trees and 



building around the trunk a steep incline which the cater- 

 pillar can not surmount. After this was done the trees are 

 violently shaken when thousands of the insects fall to the 

 ground and then, instinctively start to reascend the trunk 

 but are arrested in the trench where they are destroyed in 

 untold thousands by pounding with wooden stamps. 



The ravages of the new pest includes the defoliation of 

 the trees as well as the destruction of the fruit and begins 

 just as quickly as the caterpillar emerges from the egg. The 

 fruit is first attacked and consists in "biting" into the skin 

 and eating a portion both of the covering and the substance of 

 the apple as long as it lives. Sometimes the whole apple is 

 devoured. The fruit is attacked until the skin gets tough 



4 



The Ravages of the Tussock Caterpillar 



The Pupa Stage 



