100 
The following paper was presented : 
GYPSY MOTH AND BROWN-TAIL MOTH CONDITIONS DURING 1904. 
By C. L. Mariatt, Washington, D. C. 
[ Withdrawn for publication elsewhere.¢] 
The following two papers were read by title: 
BLACK-FLY STUDIES. 
By A. F. Conran, College Station, Tex. 
The black-fy (Simulium venustum Say) is responsible for much | 
annoyance in many parts of New. England, especially about inland - 
summer resorts. For some time it has threatened the business of 
summer hotels in such localities. This pest becomes troublesome 
about May 1 in southern New Hampshire and about May 20 in the 
northern parts of the State, according to data gathered from different 
hotel managers interested in the extermination of the scourge. 
There is no distinct defnition of breods; all stages can be found 
during the entire summer. The life history lasts from five to nine 
weeks, depending upen the conditions of the breeding places. Shal- 
low, sunlt water rippling over a pebbly bottom forms the ideal 
breeding ground. The first experiments for the purpose of extermi- 
nating this insect that were made in New Hampshire were at Dix- 
ville Notch, in the northern part of the State. The results were 
recorded in the sixteenth annual report of this Association. Since 
that time experiments have been continued by the writer in several 
parts of the State, all of which go to show that this species can be 
reduced to an inconsiderable pest in all localities where it occurs. 
The methods of extermination consist: (1) In applying phinotas: 
oil to the breeding grounds; (2) scrubbing with stable brooms 
where the breeding place covers a small area, and especially when 
the bottom of the stream is composed of solid rock; (3) damming 
streams; (4) raking with iron rakes. 
The last three methods are to be employed when there is danger 
of killing the fish in such streams as feed lakes reserved for fish 
culture. 
The first oil experiments were conducted at the Hotel Balsoms, . 
~Dixville Notch, N. H., in the waste way of the hotel lake, which is 
the source of Mokawk Creek. The breeding ground from which 
the hotel was infested was about 5 feet wide and 20 feet long in the 
sunlit waters of the waste way. Here the immature stages were 
present at the rate of 64 to the square inch, making a total of about 
a Published as Circular No. 58, Bureau of Entomology. 
