EEMEDIES IX EUROPE. 



285 



hand. In a Russian work* by A. F. Ruclzky, is given the 

 following : ' ' The eggs are laid on the trunks of the trees in 

 large masses. These may be easily scraped off with a knife 

 during ten entire months in southern Russia. If the egg- 

 clusters are not scraped off, it is necessary to destroy the 

 caterpillars as soon as hatched, and while still clustering in 

 groups. When the caterpillars have spread over the whole 

 tree, it is as impossible to destroy them as the separate 

 moths. When they have eaten the foliage from one tree, 

 they go in a mass to another ; but this may be, in a measure, 

 prevented by putting the so-called ' catch bands ' on the tree 

 trunks. The cheapest of these bands are made of wadding, 

 five or six inches in width, and bound on tightly, leaving an 

 upper and lower edge, which is to be roughed up, so that 

 the caterpillars may become entangled in the uneven sur- 

 faces. The wadding may be made fast to the trunks with 

 strings, or glued together in bands. Where a large number 

 of these bands are needed, it is advisable to paste the wad- 

 ding (during the winter) on coarse paper, one side of which 

 is smeared with tar. Bands of pitch or tar are frequently 

 used, but these soon become dry. In the Crimea, a mixture 

 of two parts of boiled tar and one part of rape oil, thoroughly 

 heated together, is used ; also a mixture of ten pounds of 

 lard, twenty pounds of hemp-seed oil and eighty pounds 

 of coal tar. This is applied directly to the tree and needs 

 renewing twice a year. Labodsky recommends this same 

 ointment, and says that, when well prepared, it will retain 

 its sticky qualities an entire autumn." 



Theodore Beling, inspector of forests at Seesen, wrote 

 July 21, 1895, that the methods adopted there were to kill 

 the caterpillars, pup^e and moths, but that the most impor- 

 tant method was to destroy the egg-masses on the tree trunks 

 by scraping them off and burning them, or by covering them 

 with raupenleim, or with a mixture of four parts of wood 

 tar and one part of petroleum. Dr. Richard Hess, in **Der 

 Forstschutz," published in Leipzig, 1887 and 1890, gives 

 the following concerning the gypsy moth : ' ' Prevention : 

 Protection of its enemies, bats, cuckoos, starlings, crows. 



* " Insects Useful and Injurious to Fruit Trees." 



