UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1142 
Washington, D. C. 
March, 30 ; 1923 
THE BARRIER FACTORS IN GIPSY MOTH TREE-BANDING MATERIAL. 
By M. T. Smulyan, Specialist, Gipsy Moth and Brown-Tail Moth Investigations, 
Bureau of Entomology. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introductory and historical 1 
Reasons for investigation 2 
The problem 2 
Page, 
Experimental work 3 
Summary and conclusions 14 
■Literature cited 15 
INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL. 
Gipsy moth tree-banding material is a greasy and semiviscid sub- 
stance, with an odor resembling that of tar, which is being used for 
tree-banding by the Bureau of Entomology in its control work 
against the gipsy moth (Porthetria dispar L.). It is a domestic 
product, originated in 1915, by members of the staff of the Bureau 
of Chemistry. United States Department of Agriculture, as a result 
of a request made by A. F. Burgess, in charge of the gipsy moth 
and brown-tail moth suppression work for the Bureau of En- 
tomology. It was developed as a substitute for the German 
"raupenleim" (i, p. 132). * a product which had been in use, ex- 
perimentally, in this country since 1891-92. 2 About that time it 
was brought to the attention of the gipsy moth authorities by Prof. 
B. E. Fernow, then Chief of the Division of Forestry, United States 
Department of Agriculture, who knew of its use against the gipsy 
and nun 3 moths and other insects in the European forests (3, p. 129)* 
The material closely resembles the raupenleim which it has now 
replaced. As manufactured at present, the gipsy moth tree-banding 
material is composed of coal-tar neutral oil, 5 hard coal-tar pitch, 
rosin oil, and ordinary commercial hydrated lime (2, p. 3-4-). 6 The 
odor and the viscosity of the material, the characteristics or elements 
which are of chief concern here, become more pronounced with 
rising temperature, and in a warm and more or less confined atmos- 
1 Numbers in parentheses (italic) refer to " Literature cited," p. 15. 
2 Other importations were made in 1893 (S, p. 129), 1909, and 1912 (1, p. 131-132). 
3 Liparis monacha L. 
* In Europe it has also been used to cover the egg masses of insects to prevent hatching 
(S, p. ffi; !,, p. 787). 
6 A distillate substantially free from bases or phenols. 
• For further details see U. S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin 899. 
25649—23 
