Smyrna times., 1906-08-29

sy Pests-NO Present Hope of Stop
ping Spread of Former Moths From
New England to Rest of the Coun-
try, Says DIR. L. o. Howard.
That there is no present hope Of
preventing the spread of the brown
tail moth from New England through
out the rest of the United States and
only chance of conquering the gypsy
moth after years of work in propagat-
ing and disseminating the parasites
which feed upon it is the opinion ex-
pressed by DR.. Leland O. Howard. en-
tomologist of the agricultural depart
ment, who recently returned to Wash
ingtOn from an official investigation of
the ravages of the moth in Massachu-
setts.
Dr. Howard travelled last year over
the greater part of Europe and re-
peated the trip last spring to engage
the assistance of foreign scientists in
the effort to import into the United
States thousands of parasites which
would war upon the gypsy and brown
tail moths. Before going abroad on
March 10 he looked over the situation
in New England, and then spent two
months organizing his European cor
respondents for this summers cam
paign against the pest. Regarding
these efforts and the spread of the
moths as just noted by him at Boston,
he said to the New York Posts
Washington correspondent:
During last winter and spring we i'm
ported through these European agents
100000 winter nests of brown tail moths
from all sections of Europe, from Tran
sylvania on the southeast to Brittany
on the northwest, and from Spain to
Berlin. We got them from all eleva-
tions. from the Mediterranean sea level
to the top of the Harz mountains, so
as to meet all climatic conditions. From
these we bred 10000 parasites in the
special laboratory established at Sau-
gus. near Boston. They are of several
different species, and have been found
capable Of attacking the gypsy as we'll
as the brown tail moth. About $4,000
of the parasites have been liberated out
of doors in colonies, especially chosen
places being selected for them in woods
where there is little danger of fire, and
where no work is being done against
insects.
"As a result, so far we find that the
parasites placed in the field stung the
brown tall moth caterpillars as they is
sued from the winter nests. The para
sites have already undergone one COM
plete generation in reproduction and
are now stinging the nearly full grown
caterpillars of the other kind. the gypsy
moth. and the chrysalids of both spe-
cies. In the meantime there have been
coming over from Erope since May last
caterpillars of both species of all stages
of growth, but mainly of nearly full
size. From these we have been breed
ing in the laboratory at Saugus a large
number of parasites of various species,
some of which have been liberated out
of doors, while others have been colo
nized in tents built over trees and
stocked with caterpillars. They all
seem perfectly at home and breeding
is going on. This is encouraging, but it
is impossible to predict when they will
begin to make any visible impression
Oh the enormous armies of caterpillars
which appear there every spring.
What chance is there of preventing
the spread to other sectionsY'
ut cannot be prevented" was the
reply. THE brown tail moth flies read
lily and is carried by the wind great
diStonoac II &c pou, found ac for uvacf
as Worcester, Mass; some exist in
Vermont. 1t reaches a good distance
into New Hampshire and to a great
distance up the Maine coast. The gypsy
moth does not fly, but has been spread
in Massachusetts by being carried in
the caterpillar stage on electric cars
and automobiles especially. 1t spins
down from the trees in the caterpillar
stage and drops on these passing We
hicles. The gypsy moth covers eastern
Massachusetts and southern New
Hampshire, and is found at Providence,
r. l., and Stonington, Conn, in isolated
groups. An especial effort will be
made to stamp out these two groups
to prevent extending the general area
or rayages."
what remedial measures are con-
templatedT'
1--WE hope for good results from the
work of the parasites in exterminating
the gypsy moth, as they cannot fly
away. We propose cleaning off the
shade trees along the main roads out
of the affected sections in Massachu-
setts, and thus reduce to a minimum
the ever present chance Of automobiles
carrying them to other states These
motor cars travel such enormous dis
tances in a single day that there is no
telling how widely they may spread
the moths IN a single season.
AS for the brown tail moth, there is
nothing on which to base the hope that
1t can be kept from spreading west
ward to New YTk and other sections
of the country. AS it flies readily, it
can go anywhere. The most hopeful