Middletown transcript., 1901-07-20
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fruit and shade trees throughout the State
are being rendered unsightly and consid
erably injured by the depredations oi
Webworms. These catsrpillars hatched
from eece" about July LIST and are now
July about half grown. They are
easily recognised by the large web which
they spin over the foliage and within
which they feed. Ounce, apple, and
cherry trees seem to be worse attacked,
and very frequently these are found al
most entirely defoliated, and covered
with webs, while some 120 fruit and
shade trees are included in the list of
food plants of this pest. The Webworms
are readily distinguished from the Tent
caterpillars which appear in the spring,
as the latter do not enclose the foliage in
their tent, which is smaller; the tent cat
erpillars are black with a white stripe
down the middle of the back, while the
webworms are more commonly light yel-
lowish.
When full grown the webworms are
about one inch long, varying from pale
yellow to greenish or darker shades The
body is covered with tufts of long,
straight hairs arising from small yellow
protuberances. A broad dusky or black
ish stripe extends down the back, on
each side of which is yellowish band,
speckled with black. The parents of this
pest are quite pretty moths, usually of a
milk-white color, though often spotted
with black, whose wings expand about
one and one-fourth inches from tip to tip.
They emerge in May or June and the
females each deposit from 400 to 500 eggs
in patches on the under sides of the
leaves. These eggs hatch late in June,
and become full grown about the middle
of July. They then crawl down the
tree and burrow slightly under the sur
face of the ground or creep under loose
bark, or into some such shelter. There
they spin their silken cocoons containing
numerous hairs from their bodies, and in
these transform to pupae. From the
pupae the moths emerge late in July or
August and lay eggs for another brood of
worms. These worms become full grown
late in September or in October, and the
pupae remain in the cocoons over winter,
the moths emerging the next Spring.
Therefore, as there will be another
brood of the worms this year, it is impor-
tant to destroy as many as possible at
once before they have left the trees to
pupate, for every worm which becomes
full grown and transforms to pupa and
moth, means the appearance of large
number of worms in August or September.
demonstrating trees with cotton
is of no value against this pest, though a
most desirable means of trapping the
Tussock-moth caterpillars, which are so
often injurious to shade trees, as the web
worms do not crawl from tree to tree.
Spraying the trees with an arSenical
poison will soon rid them of the worms.
Either Paris green, green arsenoid, arse
nate of lead, or arsenic of lime will be
found satisfactory. Paris green or green
arsenoid should be used at the rate of
one fourth pound to barrel of water, to
which should be added two pounds of
freshly Stacked lime.
During the winter the cocoons may be
easily collected and destroyed.
One of the best and most common
means of destroying the worms is to burn
them in the webs. If this be done at
nightfall it can be done without any ma
terial injury to the twigs, which will soon
put out new leaves and will not be per-
manently disfgued, and is much better
than pruning off the infected parts. A
bundle of rags wired to the end of long
pole makes good torch for this work or
a porous brick wired to pole and satur-
ated with kerosene is even better. Care
should be taken in the use of such torches
near buildings to avoid any possibility Of
a confagration.
The webworms are much worse this
season than for several years, and it be-
hooves everyone to destroy all possible to
prevent more serious injury by the sec
ond brood.
DELAWARE COLLEGE AGRICULTURAL Ex-
PERTINENT STATION, Newark, Del.