Putnam patriot. [volume] (Putnam, Conn.) 1872-1962, 1914-03-20
MOTH SCOUTS
Putnam Men Making Regulations
Asked to Speak. What Norwich Paper
saws


The brown-tail moth scouts who
have been here a day or two under
orders from the state entomologist
have already found that they will be
able to report that parts of this section
are infected with the moth, and al
though they have not yet begun work
at Norwich Town they said on Friday
evening that they had seen from the
trolley cars as they rode by that there
were a lot of the nests of the brown
tail in that section.
John II. Osgood and E. r. Sherman
of Putnam are the two who make up
the scouting party here and they say
| that they have been put at work large
| ly to determine just how much the
moth has spread and where the infest-
ed territory is.
| In the work they have done so far
since they have been here, they have
| found one brown-tail moth nest in
Bozrah Center, two along the Salem
| turnpike just over the Bozrah line, one
in Franklin, one in Montville, and one
on Wauwecus hill.
The scouts expect to be here about
two weeks and to look over the towns
of Norwich, Salem and Montville.
When their arrival in town became
known they were promptly invited to
| give the Boy Scouts at the Y. M. G. A.
a talk and Mr.. Sherman spoke before
the Saturday night meeting of the
Boy Scouts.
When town is reported as infested,
it at once also goes into the quarantine
| class and no nursery stock can be ship
ped from it without inspection.
Although the menace of the brown
tail has been sounded so frequently,
Mr.. Osgood, who is an old experienced
tree man, says that there are many
people they find yet who ought to
know about them but do not.
| Because the trees are denuded of
| their leaves now, this is favorable
time to conduct the search for the
| brown-tail nests, for they can be more
easily seen. These winter nests are
| formed of leaves, sometimes only one
leaf and at other times several leaves
together, drawn together by the silk
which the caterpillar spins .andslashed
firmly to the twig. They are impervi-
Gus to water.
The equipment of the browntail
moth scouts consists of primer with
an extension handle, by which they
can reach to a height of at least 20 feet,
which is enough to cut off any twigs
on which they see the nest. They
keep record of all they find, destroy
ing all that they clip from the trees.
A small nest would contain about so
caterpillars and large nest from 200
to 800. While dormant in the nests
now, the cater pillars will quickly be-
! come lively if taken into a heated
room, and as soon as it is warm
enough for foliage to sprout, they also
square meal on the tender leaves. They
keep on eating ravenously until they
! mature about the 10th to 10Th of June,
when they go into cocoons and emerge
| from them as moths about the middle
of July. Then they lay their eggs and
new crop of caterpiliars is Matched
about the latter part of August.
The bro wntail scouts who are work
! ing for the state are not also Oh the
| lookout for the gypsy moth. That
work is being done by the United
! States government, who have men at
work in Putnam, Woodstock and
Thompson. In all of these towns egg
masses of the gypsy moth have been
| found.