GTPSY MOTH TN CONNECTICUT. 23 



these might be gipsy-moth eggs, he had, in order to make sure, cul off 

 the abdomen of the female moth and, obtaining the eggs from her, 

 compared them with those of the egg mass and concluded thai they 

 were identical. We inspected the region and found a number of 

 egg masses in some low bushes near the velvet mill. This, as well 

 as the place where Mr. Frensch found the adult moth, is near the 

 railroad, and not far from the point where the spur track leading to 

 the steamboat dock branches from the main track. 



The next thing was to learn the extent of the infestation, or. in 

 other words, the size of the infested area. We applied to Massachu- 

 setts for a trained scout, and through the kindness of Superintendent 

 Kirkland we obtained the services of Mr. C. S. Mixter for two weeks. 

 Mr. Mixter scouted nearly 5 square miles of territory, giving as his 

 opinion that the infested territory had been well surrounded. The 

 brush on about 5 acres of land around the pond by the velvet mill 

 was cut and burned before May 1, the hatching time for the eggs. 

 The agg masses found were destroyed by soaking them with creosote 

 oil. Banding trees with burlap was commenced about the middle 

 of May; only a few were banded at first, but the number was 

 increased as fast as seemed desirable. We supposed, of course, that 

 about all of the Qgg masses had been destroyed, but the number of 

 caterpillars found showed that some had been overlooked, and during 

 the summer we ran across a number of these old egg masses — more 

 even than had previously been destroyed. 



Most of the caterpillars were found on old apple trees, though 

 cherry, quince, rose bushes, and red maple were infested. Many of 

 the old apple trees had received no care for many years, if ever, and 

 the tops were crowded with branches, some of which were dead, the 

 bark was rough, and in many cases trees were hollow or had cavities 

 caused by broken or rotting branches. All of these faults were serious 

 hindrances to our work because they furnished hiding places out of 

 our reach for the caterpillars, so that they would not go under the 

 bands where we could find them. We therefore pruned and scraped 

 many trees, and filled up the cavities with stone and cement. A few 

 trees were sprayed with arsenate of lead, and sticky bands of "tree 

 tanglefoot" were given a trial. In a few cases brush growing near 

 stone Avails was found infested. The brush was cut and the walls 

 fired with fuel oil to kill any caterpillars that might be hiding in 

 them. 



We had men on the ground continuously from June 7 to September 

 1, and during the latter part of June and first half of July ten men 

 were kept busy pruning, scraping, and banding trees, and destroying 

 caterpillars. The bands were visited each day until after nearly all 

 the caterpillars had pupated, when they were examined less fre- 

 quently — perhaps every other day — and finally twice a week, until all 



