406 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



made careful investigations of this disease, but have had 

 very little success in inoculating healthy caterpillars with 

 cultures made from those which were diseased. 



Lmporting Paeasites. 

 No attempt has been made to import parasites thus far, 

 for the reason that the law requires the work to be con- 

 ducted with direct reference to the extermination of the 

 gypsy moth, and, therefore, the general destruction of the 

 insect would also destroy the parasites. There is no reason 

 why our native Hymenopterous parasites may not prove 

 quite as effective as those of any other country, since there 

 is no parasite known which confines itself exclusively to the 

 gypsy moth, and, as has been shown, we have several species 

 which attack it as readily as any in its native country. 



Insectary. 



In the early part of the work on the gypsy moth, the 

 more difficult and important experiments and observations 

 were conducted in the insectary at Amherst ; but it seemed 

 desirable, and even necessary, to repeat man}^ of the ex- 

 periments on a far more extensive scale than was possible 

 at that place, and it was therefore decided to fit up and equip 

 a room for this purpose, in the store-house on Commercial 

 Street, Maiden. This building stands on piles, about six 

 feet from the ground, which is swampy and wet. The front 

 of the building is on a level with the street, which is built 

 up to the grade indicated. 



In the room thus fitted up many experiments were con- 

 ducted, a large number of which gave very satisfactory 

 results. But in the experiments on insecticides, where a 

 check series was conducted, with no poisons used on the 

 food, the mortality was often so great that we felt very un- 

 certain about the results in the cages where the caterpillars 

 were fed on leaves sprayed with insecticides, whether they 

 died from the effects of the poison, or because of the un- 

 healthful surroundings. 



In the early part of the summer of 1895, a small lot of 

 land, in the edge of the woodland in the suburbs of Maiden, 



