118 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



Injurious to Fruit Trees " for Yin cent Kollar's work, pub- 

 lished at Yienna, Austria, says : ** With respect to destroy- 

 ing these insects, the first thing that is necessary is to find 

 out the egg-masses and destroy them."* 



This method is quite generally employed in European 

 countries where the gypsy moth is plentiful. We have con- 

 ducted a considerable foreign correspondence to determine 

 what methods are now in use in European countries to check 

 the ravages of the moth. Under date of Aug. 29, 1895, 

 Dr. Antonio Augusto Carvalho Monteiro writes from Lis- 

 bon, Portugal: "We generally endeavor to kill the larvge 

 at about the end of June, or to destroy the cottony discs 

 which enclose the eggs during autumn, by scraping the 

 trunks of the trees, the walls, etc., and then crushing or 

 burning them, or sometimes even covering them with a 

 thick layer of coal tar by means of brushes." 



Professor Henry of the School of Forestry at Nancy, 

 France, writes under date of July 27, 1895: **The best 

 thing to do is to kill the heavy female wherever it is met 

 with, and especially to coat the egg-clusters, generally very 

 easily seen, with a thick coat of tar by means of a brush at 

 the end of a pole." 



Prof. N. Nasonov writes from Warsaw University Mu- 

 seum of Zoology in Eussia, Aug. 7, 1895, stating that the 

 first method used is scraping the bark from the trees after 

 the deposit of the eggs. 



Prof. Max. Fingerling writes from Leipzic, Germany, on 

 Aug. 9, 1895 : The best method of holding the insects in 

 check is by destroying their eggs. In this particular case 

 nature has provided a means in the easily recognizable egg- 

 clusters." 



When in 1891 the people of the infested region were con- 

 sulted by the agents of the second commission for the exter- 

 mination of the gypsy moth, it was found that there existed 

 among them a strong prejudice against spraying, and also a 

 belief that it was not efiective with the gypsy moth. Gather- 

 ing the eggs was believed by those who had fought the moth 

 in Medford to be the most efiective method of destruction 



* " A Treatise on Injurious Insects," by Vincent KoUar, English translation by 

 J. and M. Loudon, London, 1840, page 202. 



