Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-28

breeding Of silkworms he had imported
some eggs of the foreign gypsy moth. and
cluster of these day blew out of his
laboratory window at Maiden, Mass. He
was unable to find them and the circum-
stance was unnoticed until about twenty
years later, when a caterpillar invasion of
100 square miles of country around NAL
den excited the wrath of the good Yankee
farmers. Woods have since been stripped
bare and all sorts of fruit, shade and
woodland trees, even grass and field vege-
tables, have been attacked. In appropria-
lions which have grown continuously from
year to year the state has persstently
fought the pest except from 1900 to 1906
which lapse has allowed the army Of
moths to spread as far west as Worces-
ter and cross the New HAMPSHIRE and
Rhode Island boundaries.
In the early nineties a shipment of roses
from Holland brought to Somerville, Mass.
a few caterpillars of the brown-tai moth
which have since spread all the way from
Cape Cod to Eastport, Me-, and have be-
come more abundant and ravenous even
than the gypsy moth. They have ruined
millions of dollars worth of fruit trees,
and, like the others. have cost the state
hundreds of thousands of dollars in appro-
priations. Trees infested by it are sprayed
with Paris green or arsenate of lead solu-
lions in summer. and the caterpillar nests
are cut off and burned in winter.
Billions Lost to This Bug.
Some years ago there crossed our frontier
from heAlCo an insect whose damage, all
told. must be rated in the billions rather
than the millions. This was the boil weevil,
which attacks the bolls of growing cotton.
In Texas alone 1t destroyed $25,0OO. 600
worth of cotton in 1902. $22. 600 600 worth
In 1904 and $1S,0O0Oo0 worth last year,
and it has been spreading northward at the
rate of forty to sixty miles year. The
pea aphis, which ravages the pea field OF
the country. has cost total loss in two
years of about 100000. The white fly"
did half million dollars worth of dam
age in Utah, Idaho and Colorado last sea-
son. Another expensive insect is the Black
Hills beetle, which has killed over 1ooO,-
01o,eo0 feet of timber In the Black Hills
forest of South Dakota. and which is now
sending armies of invasion into Colorado
and New Mexico.
You are now finding an occasional
worm in your peaches. 1t is not really
worm. but the larVal form of the .sliftla
Turk" a native American beetle, which
also devours plums and other fruits. DR.
Howard's bureau finds that the best method
of lighting this pest is that known to peach
growers as Earring An inverted UNI
brella-shaped canvas, often mounted on a
cart, is pushed under the tree Then the
latter is given a sudden Jar with a padded
bumper and the frightened beetles, folding
their legs and feigning DEATH fall llpon the
canvas and are scooped into a can of kero-
sine.
The Hessian fly, which has DESTROYED mil
mons OF uoliarS worth of our wheat and
which is alleged to have been brought to
this country by the Hessian troops during
the Revolution. is being subjected to a very
thorough course of study by the bureau OF
entomology. 1t is being confined In the field
In white canvas breeding cages, where it
is carried through its different transforma-
TONS from egg to adult, during the whole
summer.
The old rhyme to the effect that "ar fieas
have other feas to bite 'em," land SO on ad
infinitum." is suggested by the ingenious
enlistment by DR.. Howard of insect SOL
dfers to fight such of their fellow-kind as
have become expensive pests The micro
scope reveals that practically all insects
have parasites which depend upon them for
livelihood just the bot-hy depends Ilpon
the sheep, sow or horse. Others are the
favorite food of larger insects AS soon as
an insect becomes extensively noxious DR..
Howard searches its haunts for its most
fatal parasite or most rabid enemy. These
are watched for months at a time in breed
ing cages or incubators and often are con-
fined along with their prey or hosts In
observation cages distributed throughout
growing field or built about a tree.
The boil weeyil. gypsy moth and San
Jose scale are the more destructive insects
for which effective parasites or enemies
have been recently discovered DR. How
ard has just returned from a search in
Europe for destructive new parasites of
the gypsy moth.
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS.