Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-08-10
TIE FOREST NORM.
Has Caused Great Damage In Maple
Groves AID Apple Orchards.

Has Caused Great DamaEe In Maple
Groves and Apple Orchards.
The forest tent caterpillar is not
new pest. having sit intervals in the
past been in evidence fsom Maine to
Texas. During the last three years
there has been serious outbreak in
the Kew England states and this sea
son the same insect, often called the
forest worm, is proving so destructive
Ia that section and also in New York
state as to cause serious alarm, and
the stations and various agricultural
authorities are urging active measures
against it. The caterpillafs defoliate
the sugar maple ami some other forest
trees. are very destructive to apple
orchards and attack other fruit trees,
being very general feeders. The Cor
nell station in its efforts to repel the
invasion Of New York has sent out
emergency reports. froA which it ap-
pears that after the caterpillars are
half or two-thirds grown they can only
be combated by employing men to
make a business of lighting them with
mallets. brooms and sheets.
The New Hampshire station gives
the history of this pest in bulletin 81
and among measures for combating
lit In its later stages such as have now
to be dealt with. are the following:
After the caterplllars are half grown
they commonly come down TO the low
er branches or tie trunk to undergo the
melting process. To this end they
gather IL great masses on the bark
where they may be destroyed by means
of a stiff broom-more effective per-
haps if frequently dipped in Kerosene
or by collecting the caterpillars in pals
containing little kerosene and water.
In the towns and villages throughout
the infested regions, vast numbers of
the pests were destroyed in these
ways, especially the latter, in 1898.
The fact that so large a proportion
of the caterpillars drop off the trees
from time to time and return by
crawling up the trunks has led to the
quite general use of bands of various
materials upon the trunk to prevent
the ascent of the larvae. Sticky fly
paper tanglefoot'- been COM
monty used with a large degree of
success. 1t is effective, cheap and east
Iy applied. Rather wide bands of it
are necessary to prevent bridging over
by the dead or dying caterpillars.
A better substance, however, is rau-
penleim, or Caterpillar lime" a ma
terial manufactured in Germany for
application to the bark of trees to pre-
vent the ascent of caterpillars and 9TH
er crawling insects 1t is to be put on
as a rather wide band or as two mar
rover bands.
BY a combination Of Earring and
banding much injury may be prevent
ed, at least in the apple orchard and on
the home grounds. After the trees in
tested have been banded with the cat
erpillar lime a boy with a padded NAL
let may be sent into them with instruc
lions to jar the li'ubs on which the
caterpillars are working, beginning at
the top. This should be done when the
caterpillars are feeding upon the
leaves, as they are then much more
easily disturbed than when they are
at rest. BY two or three repetitions of
the Earring most of the caterpillars
should be removed. In case they hang
persistently by their threads many of
them may be swept out of the air by
use of long, light pole. This will lead
the caterpillars TO congregate in
masses upon the trunk below the
bands of raupenleim. where they may
be destroyed by use of stiff broom or
| by various other methods.