468 
LEPIDOPTERA. 
In the “ Manchester Guardian,” an English newspaper, of 
the 4th of November, 1840, is the following article on the 
use of melted Indian rubber to prevent insects from climbing 
up trees. “ At a late meeting of the Entomological Society, 
[of London?] Mr. J. H. Fennell communicated the fol¬ 
lowing successful mode of preventing insects ascending the 
trunks of fruit-trees. Let a piece of Indian rubber be burnt 
over a gallipot, into which it will gradually drop in the con¬ 
dition of a viscid juice, which state, it appears, it will always 
retain; for ]\Ir. Fennell has, at the present time, some which 
has been melted for upwards of a year, and has been exposed 
to all weathers without undergoing the slightest change. 
Having melted the Indian rubber, let a piece of cord or 
worsted be smeared with it, and then tied several times round 
the trunk. The melted substance is so very sticky, that the 
insects will be prevented, and generally captured, in their 
attempts to pass over it. About three pennyworth of Indian 
rubber is sufficient for the protection of twenty ordinaiy- 
sized fruit-trees.” Applied in this way it would not be suf¬ 
ficient to keep the canker-worm moths from getting up the 
trees; for the first-comers would soon bridge over the cord 
with their bodies, and thus afford a passage to their followers. 
To insure success, it should be melted in larger quantities, 
and daubed with a brush upon strips of cloth or paper, 
fastened round the trunks of the trees. Worn out Indian 
rubber shoes, which are worth little or nothing for any other 
purpose, can be put to this use. This plan has been tried by 
a few persons in the vicinity of Boston, some of whom speak 
favorably of it. It has been suggested that the melted rub- 
ber might be applied immediately to the bark without injur¬ 
ing the trees. A little conical mound of sand surrounding 
O O 
the base of the tree is found to be impassable to the moths, 
so long as the sand remains diy; but they easily pass over it 
when the sand is wet, and they come out of the ground in 
wet as often as in dry weather. 
Some attempts have been made to destroy the canker- 
