The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-07-26
WAGING WAR ON
 BROWN TAIL MOTH
Millions for Defense Making Little Headway Against
 This Orchard Pest.
IS NOW. IN CONNECTICUT

IS NOW IN CONNECTICUT
 New England is again at war. Her
 historic hills are ringing with the
 sounds of combat, and her verdant
 valleys are volleying defiance to a
 common enemy. The foe is dressed in ] brown velvet; he hides in the trees 1; ] is numbered in countless millions; is
 more voracious than the hungriest
 Hessian ever hired by King George
 and the damage he has inflicted since
 his arrival on our shores is estimated to be ten times as much as all the | wreck of fire and flood since the Col
 OnieS were young.
 | The brown tail moth is the invader
 that the farmers and scientific men. of
 New England are battling, and all
 though the state of MasBachusetts | alone has spent more than $7, 900, 900 in
 the war against him and his terrible 1 brother. the gypsy moth, the human 1 forces have thus far met nothing but | defeat. Like the gypsy, the brown tail moth works his havoc in the cat
 erpillar states. Each mother moth l lays about 300 eggs, and each cater pillar converts several hundred leaves
 into skeletons in the course of a sea-
 son.
 At first the scientists thought the
 caterpillars were partial to pear leaves l but they soon discovered that while l the vermin always asked for second 1 or third helping of Bartlett buds or plate for more when on peach, cher
 ry, oak, maple, elm, or any other old i tree except the evergreens "Aha,"
 cried the deep thinking scientists when
 they made this discovery, the brown
 tail moth caterpillars will not harm
 the conifers That at least is a v1c- 1 toryr' But the owner of an orchard I that is being rapidly skinned by the ,l,,rk k~,s% I@ doned if he does not jubilate over that fact. It is, of course, consoling to
 know that the pesky brutes will not
 eat pine cones, but how about the or chard?
 Just at present the brown tail moth is pretty we'll spread over Massachu- setts, s,New Hampshire, Connecticut,a and
 has appeared here and there in Rhode Island and Maine. The old Bay State however, has received the brunt of the attack, and hundreds of square miles Of forest and orchard have been de-
 vastated within the boundaries of
 Massachusetts,. Just where and when the scourge was imported is not defin- itely known. It is believed, however, that it was first brought from Hol- land or France on some rose bushes to Somerville, Mass, in 1890.
 When one considers the remarkable industry the caterpillar displays. it's Dutch descent seems probable. It was not recognized, however, by the SCl0nIlllC SnaTpS uUIll l0Sly Wn6H lHS residents of Somerville and Cambridge found the strange caterpillar feeding upon their pear trees The Gypsy Moth commission of the state, which was then fighting its hopeless battle with the larger and better known cat erpillar, was at once notified, and the identity of the immigrant was estab- iished. It had been known for 200 years all over Europe, where it had operated from the Mediterranean to Sweden.
 By the close of 1905 the brown tail had spread pretty well over New Eng land from Lower Massachusetts to the White Mountains, and was still spreading. Mrs. Brown Tail is trav- eler, which makes her great deal more dangerous than Mrs. Gypsy The latter has wings, but cannot use them. Mrs. Brown Tail has them, and uses them very well. She is dissipated young thing, too, for she always flies by night, and often telegraph poles and the sides of houses will be literal ly whitened by the millions blown against them in the latter part of Ju- ly. The time of flight is from the 1st to the 20th of July, and as the pre- vailing winds in New England are from the southwest, the spread of the pest has been mostly toward the northeast.
 The moths begin laying their. eggs soon after their flight is commenced, and the larvae hatch in the early part
 
 as they are matched, first feeding on the leaves where they were brought | to light, and later wandering all over the tree. At night like wel1-trained | little ones, they return to their orig | inal leaf. When they are matched they | are about one-twelfth of an inch in | length. and in five or six weeks shed | their first skin. Later in the season | they mott again. Along in Septem- | Der the caterpillars begin to spin their | winter webs by drawing together a | number of leaves with silken threads of their own manufacture, and when | colonies of POO or 300, enter their nests | or webs as the experts call them, | and close the holes after them. They | are then about one-quarter grown. appear, the caterpillars emerge from | their winter quarters with a six | months appetite, and proceed to eat the farmer out of his orchard. The | by dint of rapid and con- | tinuous eating reaches full size, a trif1e | over an inch in length, early in June- During the latter part of June it spins | it's cocoon, transforms itself into a pupa, and remains in that state for | twenty days. Then it comes out a l moth in July, flies to more congenia1 | orchards and starts the work of null | and devastation anew. |
 Dr. l.. O. Howard, chief of the bu- | reau of entomology of the department 1 of agriculture in Washington, has just | from a three months trip | abroad in quest of information and | materials with which to fight the brown tail. He has visited many uni | versailles and laboratories forests and orchards, and has come back to the United States with a fine collection of beetles and parasites, which make diet of the destructive caterpillar. In order to fetch the parasites, which are merely little bugs, almost microscopic in their litt1eness, Dr. Howard was obliged to bring along the caterpillars upon which the parasites were living. |
 A box two of the caterpillarS es- caped while on Shipboard and in the l New York postoffice, much to the per ,urbation of the ladies and gentlemen | n the vicinity. The caterpillars will | pc released in the orchards and for ssts infested by the healthy brown ails, and the theory is that very soon he parasites will move their quarters. | The scientists must be very careful when they are importing parasites hat they do not bring along some 'hVnPr-na SitPS' well HVnPr- l