Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1914-03-31
Dead and Live Brown.TalIs.

There Is an occasional ray OF cheer II
the gloom Of the brown.tail situation.
Some two or three weeks since Ellii
Whitman Of Buckfleld brought into tht
Democrat office three large brown.tai
moth nests, picked from the trees on bill
farm, on the east slope Of Streaked
Mountain. He said that both he AND
his neighbors had examined numerous
nests, and bad kept nests in warm
room for some time, and had been IN
able to find live caterpillar in any oil
them.
About the same time some nests pick.
ed in South Paris village were sent into
the Office with the comment that the
man who picked them had found no live
caterpillars.
All these nests lay In the Democrat
office without sign of life for some time.
A few days since G. A. Yeaton, director
Of orchard demonstration in Oxford
County, was in the village, and the Dem
ocrat asked him to come in and look at
these nests.
On picking up one Of the nests, Mr..
Yeaton Immediately pointed out little
puncture in the fabric of the nest.
"There," he said, sis where q parasite
came out, after finishing his work in
side"
He then carefully dissected all the
nests and examined the contents thor
oughly, but did not find live caterpil-
lar in any of them. Part of the work OF
destruction, he said, bad been done by a
parasite, but the larger part OF it was
due to an infectious fungOus disease,
which is rapidly fatal to the csterpillars.
Now hold on! Don't jump at the
conclusion that because parasites and
disease are beginning to get In their
work, salvation is at hand, and we have
nothing to do but to sit down and wait
for the Almighty to take care OF the best
for us. Mr.. Yeaton related an incident
which bears on this point.
"Only to-day" he said, II was driving
in neighboring town, and passed an
orchard where a man was gathering
brown-tail nests. he told me that he
had just found two nests with parasites
in them, and he didn't know as he
should put in any more time picking
But l said, Now, my friend, let's look
into this little before you stop So /
hitched my horse, and We went to ex-
aminipg nests, and found number
in which the caterpillars were all alive.
In others, indeed, iu the larger part OF
them, the csterpillars were all dead.
But there were plenty left for seed, and
a heavy seeding at that"
The Democrat asked Mr.. Yeaton II he
did not consider that in spite of all that
could be done, the brown-tail, even If
kept to some degree under subsection,
would remain with rs in some quantity
indefinitely, undoubtedly" said Mr..
Yeaton. ~ have hopes that in time,
with the encouragement OF Its natural
enemies which We have given and are
giving, itmay be kept down 80 that it
will be no worse, perhaps, than the COM
mon apple tree caterpillar, which Is all
the time more or less Of pest, and has
occasional outbreaks in large numbers. -"
By the way, as to the cold weather,
which some think is destroyer OF the
pest, Mr.. Yeaton says that 1t has "abso-
lutely no effect"
Now if those nests which contain dead
had all been burned, there
would be no loss of any beneficial de-
stroying agent. The fungous disease
could not be communicated from inside
these nests to other caterpillars, and the
parasites had finished their career and
gone.
So don't let up on the pest, but take
courage of hope that the efforts OF sci
ence are beginning to produce results,
and that day may be coming when We
shall have some degree of relief from q
which seems to be fast getting
beyond the control Of man through the
feeble agency of pruning hooks and pol
son sprayers.