Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-04-09
FIGHTING THE GYPSY MOTH.
A Warfare in Massachusetts of Twenty
Years and no Victory yet.

For over twenty years Massachusetts,
has been engaged in a curious war
fare, and thus far has been forced to
admit defeat. 1t is war of extermin-
alton, and the enemy is only little
moth, the biggest only a little over two
inches from the tip of one wing to the
tip Of the other. But despite it's small
size the state has poured out much
money and eminent entomologists hav
money and eminent entomologists have
devoted a great deal of their time in
vain efforts to stamp out the little pest,
says the New York Times.
These scientists, one would think,
should give their services free, for it
was one of the guild who is responsible
for the whole trouble This gypsy
moth, formerly called Ocneria dispar,
is a European insect. When DR.. l..
TrouVelot, who was experimenting with
producing insects, visited Paris, in
1869, he obtained some eggs of the
gypsy moth and took them to his home,
in Medford, Mass. He brought them
up by hand, but some of the moths,
not approaching his attentive care,
escaped and set up for themselves.
Little was thought of this then, not
even a few years later, when the
farmers found their fruit crops threat
ened and forest trees nearly stripped
of their leaves by new enemy. When,
in 1885, there was a serious reduction
i'll the yield of fruit and whole tracts
Of woods were defoliated, the cause was
sought out, and found to be the de-
scendants Of DR.. Trouyelot's escaped
moths.
But there was hope, even after living
twenty years in the land, that it might
be stamped out. In so many years it
had only spread over an area of mile
and a half long by halt a mile in width,
but it had developed an appetite that
threatened every green thing in sight.
There have been several destructive
bugs introduced in this country, like
the cabbage butterfly, which may be
seen lowering in clouds over the Jersey
Heights vegetable gardens in the spring
and fall, and the potato beetle, which
~
city streets, but none have taken so
long a time to spread through the
country. The cause of this is that the
gypsy moth has only one brood in the
year, that the female does not lay many
eggs and has heavy body, which dis
incIines her to take long flights. Last
year only about 5000 acres or woodland
had been infested. The pests had
strayed comparatively very little dis
lance from Medford, their birthplace.
When their deyastations became
serious the state was asked to step in,
and in 1890 the Massachusetts legis-
lature appropriated $25 700, and COM
mission Of three practical men was ap-
pointed to start the fight. The little
that has been done in five years is
shown by the last years report of the
commissioners. The moth has spread
in the woods, particularly, faster than
it has been stamped out. In the or
chards, where the trees are more &C
cessible, they have been kept III check
! or driven away. By sprinkling the
fruit trees with paris green much good
has been affected, but this plan cannot
| be very successful in the forests. There
! the burning over of infested tracts and
! cutting down of trees in some places
has been found of value. Now the
Massachusetts farmers are asking that
| larger appropriations shall be made,
so that the commissioners, who are all
men who are trusted, may not only
! keep the bugs in check, as in the past,
! but eradicate them, egg, caterpillar and
moth
| While their natural means of spread
| ing are very slow, so that New York
may devote all it's attention to the elm
! beetles and other pests which now de-
| foliate trees, still it might come in on
railroad trains, not as a first-class pas
| senger but on vegetables, shrubs or
small trees, either as egg or caterpillar.
The advice of Prof. Lintner, the New
York state entomologist, in one of his
yearly reports, is that whoever finds
one shall go for him with much more
! luminosity than attaches to his size,
and let no guilty one escape.
AIRY FITTINGS.