Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-05-27
FOOD FOR CATTLE
OR CATERPILLARS?
Which Are You Providing Pasture
For7-study Of the Latter Being
Made at the Agricultural Expert
ment Station

Which Are YOU FToVotHO Tasse'e
For?-study Of the Latter Being
Made at the Agricultural Expert
ment Station
Orono, Me-, May 26.-The following
was issued this afternoon from the
Office of Charles D. Woods, director Of
the Agricultural Experiment Station
at the University of Maine:
About four hundred black and
yellow hairy caterpillars were picked
up this spring while a collector for
tho entomologist of the Maine Agri-
cultural Experiment Station was
walking about in a half acre grass
plot near Orono. A day or two later
twenty Of the same sort were counted
in a random square yard in the same
plot. Two thousand caterpillars to
that half acre would probably be a
conservative estimate.
The interesting thing about them is
that they are species which Is prac-
tically unknown to economic liter
allure. That means. Of course. that
they have not been recorded as occur
ring in numbers great enough TO
make their presence significant. What
circumstances brought about the
sudden increase is not known but it
is only a conspicuous example of
what goes on in nature. an ebb during
which time an insect may appear for
many consecutive years in insignifi-
cant numbers and then a high tide
when a previously little noticed
species is suddenly seen everywhere.
At the present price of hay we can
Ill afford to feed four thousand cater
pillars to the acre. While it is not
at all probable that this high estimate
represents an average for the state,
yet it is certain that the black and
yellow hairy caterpillars seen upon
the grass stubble this spring are
abundant enough to have economic
weight. Burning over the roadsides
and waste places where they are OBJ
served would be a means of reducing
their number to certain extent and
make difference in the number OF
egg laying moths to develop later to
provide for the coming infestation.
For if all goes we'll with these cater
PAAt~S' "iiASi II ia &c IlDSI ldlSu
the long winter in grasslands under
the snow. they will, before the first
of June, have spun their cocoons and
each female among these moths that
emerge will be capable of depositing
several hundred eggs.
The moth is a particularly pretty
one with body of glistening peacock
blue, and wings Of dull black which
expand about two inches. AS it flies
by day it is more often seen than
most moths which confine their ac-
tivities to the night time. They de-
post their eggs in the grasslands and
the caterpillars which hatch from
them feed during the fall in the
meadows and grassy roadsides. The
caterpillars are but partly grown
when winter comes SO they pass the
cold months under the snow unless
winter thaw sends them Scurrying
about for few days now and then
Such caterpillars are always viewed
with curiosity. In the spring they
creep up on the stubble where they
mott and then feed voraciously until
they are ready to spin their cocoons.
In vicinities where such caterpillars
have been observed this spring or
such moths are noticed this summer
it would be a protective measure to
burn over grasslands this fall or next
spring where such a remedy is prac-
tical. Incidentally many other grass
pests would be killed, too.
AS this insect has not been pre-
viously present in numbers enough
to give it economic significance the
dates Of it's different stages are not
known definitely for this state. A
study of it's habits is under way this
season at the Maine Agricultural Elk
pertinent Station.