m ^^^P miiii i Hi|:n| mm ^^^ |'i-|^l] 1 mm — i'i = il ' ^:'^?|- 1 5 1 :? ■ ^ 1 ■ i ' ?' Ti ^ 4 < SI y'^'ti -mii^ fi-ii ;■ ;;| 11 B^^"'1 1 : ^ i ' ^8:!; '^] ; ':|:;|| 8 il^i f^:-lV: 1 saifj 5^5^ ' 1 i i 1 1 1 1 1 1 in |1l 1 i : ■'1' **. ^^ERIM^^ Class k?.?b.^.-.X2^ Number JV.^.^. Volume .^....^M^JX. Source .\3a,Aw«sAaaa,(3. Received. ..^^roL5^vV^.A.^ Cost Accession No, \ S" ■A.'^S* A JVinter Nest of the Broivn-tail Moth \ '1 \m BY CLARENCE M. WEED State \ursery Iiispecfor NEW HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION In Co-operation with the STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE Bulletin 107 February, 1904 Fig. 2. — Large Winter nest of Brown-tail Moth on a branch of a cultivated Cherry Tree. Slightly reduced. THE BROWN-TAIL 3I0TH IN NEW HAMPSHIRE By Clarence M. Weed, State Nursery Inspector Southeastern New Hampshire is now infested by the Brown- tail Moth to an extent that threatens serious injury to the health and wealth of the people of the state, unless remedial meas- 'ures are generally applied. This insect is capable of causing serious losses in various ways, and it behooves every citizen ■of the infested region to be constantly on the watch for it. Fortunately it is peculiarly open to destruction during all the winter months, on account of its curious habit of passing the winter in leafy nests on the ends of the branches of trees and shrubs. It has also food preferences among these trees and shrubs, which lead it as a rule first to appear on pear, wild cherry, apple, oak, and hawthorn. Consequently the people of an infested locality have long months to look for these winter nests, destroying them and thus leading to the exterm- ination of the pest within their borders. So far as known the first colony of Brown-tail Moths was found in New Hampshire December 7, 1899. It was taken in Seabrook, near the Massachusetts line, and is illustrated in •the figure on page 48. Since then the pest has evidently been introduced again and again in different towns in the southern part of the state, so that it need occasion no surprise if it be found in almost any part of .Rockingham, Hillsborough, or -Straftord counties. There is in fact great danger of its being carried by electric cars, railroad trains, automobiles, and vehi- cles generally to other parts of New Hampshire, so that there is abundant occasion for every citizen of the state to be on the .alert to suppress the pest at its first introduction. In a case 48 THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH IN NEW HAMPSHIRE like this '^ a stitch in time" will save many times nine, for from a single colony this year there may easily be a hundred- next year and ten thousand the year following. During the period when there are no leaves upon the trees^ the winter nests of this insect are easily recognized. They Ouo it ^o,^^ jii|*ll^i ii"*^^'^^*^**^!^ liet '/ fti-M. M«^_*t^'^^ ^*<^ ^ fi>>i. Fig. 3.— First Nest of Brown-tail Motli found in New Hampshire. are composed of compact masses of leaves fastened together by a firm silken web, and inside these leaves there will be found two hundred or more small, brownish caterpillars^ These leafy nests are especially likely to be fastened to the ends of branches, and are very conspicu.ous. When spring comes the little caterpillars leave the nests at the times when ' THE AVINTER NESTS 49 they wish to feed, crawling down the twig to reach the near- by foliage. They return to their nests at night and when not feeding, so that in the spring of the 3'ear when the leaves are ■coming out, if one wishes to pick oft^ the nests, one should be •careful to do it at a time when the little caterpillars are pres- ent. ' But there is no excuse for waiting until spring to remove the nests. These caterpillars continue to feed and grow until about the ■middle of June. Each then spins around itself a silken •cocoon, the cocoon being attached to some convenient shelter, commonly the leaves of the food tree. Inside of these cocoons the caterpillars change to chrysalids, and three or four weeks later again change to the peculiar whitish moths, with a tuft •of brown hairs at the end of the body of the females, which ■gives them the common name, Brown-tail Moth. These moths lay eggs in clusters of two or three hundred each on the leaves, generally near the ends of branches, and the latter part of summer these eggs hatch into small caterpillars, which feed upon the leaves, forming gradually the protective mass which remains upon the trees through the winter. The cater- pillars remain inside the webbed leaves and thus wait until the iidvent of the following spring. The caterpillars of this Brown-tail Moth feed upon a great variety of fruit and shade trees. At times they become fright- fully destructive and their presence in many of the Massachu- •setts towns has been recognized as a grave public danger. Every place where a colony becomes established will serve as ^ centre of infestation for a new area, so that it is of vital im- portance that a lookout be kept, and at the first sign of the insect the outbreak be checked. THE WINTER NESTS The Brown-tail Moth is a pest much easier to control than the Gypsy Moth on account of its habit of passing the winter in the cocoon-like nests already mentioned. The recognition of these nests by the citizens of the state is now the most im- portant thing in regard to the presence of these insects, and consequently I show in these pages photographic illustrations of a number of different tvpes of them. In general they are Fig. 4. — Hair-covered Egg-masses of Brown-tail Moth. (^From Report of the Massac/nisetts State Board of Agrictelttire.) THE WINTER NESTS 5 1 characterized by having a very dense and firm mass of silken web woven so tightly that it is difficult to pull it apart, with a few leaves attached more or less loosely to the outside. On being cut open it is seen that each nest contains many small cavities in which the young caterpillars are resting. The fol- lowing notes on the nests illustrated may help to an understand- ing of what to look for : The winter nest shown on the inside cover page was taken from a cultivated cherry tree near Hampton Beach. It was four and one half inches long by three inches wide, having comparatively few loose leaves, and an unusual amount of dense grayish silk showing on the outside. There were 305 small caterpillars in it. The nest illustrated on page ^2 was taken from a wild cherry shrub. The nest is five inches long by two inches wide where the dried leaves project. It is composed of a whitish silk web by means of which the leaf stems are firmly attached to the twig and nearly a dozen dried brown leaves from which the upper green surface had been eaten by the young caterpil- lars. It contained 261 caterpillars. Rather a small nest of characteristic appearance is shown on page ^3. It was taken from a wild cherry shrub, and measured 3^ inches long by 2f inches wide. It had compara- tively few loose leaves, and the supporting twigs were very thoroughly covered with silk. The web contained 137 young caterpillars. An unusual form of winter web is illustrated on page 54. The young colony was situated at the end of a thrifty twig of plum tree in the nursery row, the twig having leaves of un- usual length. Four or five of the leaves at the end were firmly attached to the branch by silken wrappings, and the green surfaces of the leaves were then bent over to form the framework of the winter nest, the outer dimensions of which were 2,j4 by 2}^ inches. It contained 182 caterpillars. The nest illustrated on the title page of this Bulletin serves to show very well the way in which the leaf stems are bound to the twig so that they cannot fall ofi during the winter. It is rather unusual that so many difierent fastenings should be made as in this case. Fig. 5.— Winter Nest of Brown-tail Moth on Wild Cherry Twig. Slightly reduced. DANGER TO HEALTH 53 One of the most serious effects of the presence of the Brown- tail Moth in a community is that of the peculiar skin disease it may produce. Some of the hairs of the full-grown cater- pillars are furnished with minute barbs. When the caterpil- lars molt these barbed hairs are shed with the skin, and ^s the skins become drv and are blown about by the wind the hairs may be quite gen- erally disseminated. When the hairs alight upon the human skin they cause an irritation, which upon rub- bing may develop into in- flammation. In New Hamp- shire this phase of the in- sect's presence has already become evident. At Ports- mouth a clothes-reel was near a tree infested by the ■caterpillars. The family were greatly troubled through the summer by extraordinary irritations of the skin, for which they were unable to account, but which were doubtless due to caterpillar hairs blown from the pear tree to the clothes upon the reel. In the same city a gen- tleman, in removing a cat- erpillar which had landed upon his neck, scattered some of the hairs, which produced an eruption similar to but ■considerably worse than that produced by poison ivy. In Massachusetts, where the infestation has been longer known, this danger has become verv generally recognized. The following experiences recorded in the report on the Fig. 6.— Winter Nest of Brown-tail Moth on a Wild Cherry Twig. Slightly reduced. 54 THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH IN NEW HAMPSHIRE Brown-tail Moth, by Messrs. Fernald and Kirkland, are sim- ply examples of many others which have been reported to the authorities : A lady in Somerville wrote: "We were shockingly poi- soned by the cater- pillars of the Brown- tail Moth. They troubled us all sum- mer. Every member of my family was poi- soned. At first we did not know what they were. My little boy could not go near the insects without getting poisoned, — every time he went to pick cherries he would come down from the tree badly poisoned. If my baby went near where they were, his face would break out into a rash. I was so dreadfully poisoned that I thought I had some frightful dis- e a se . My hands, face, and arms were broken out with this rash. Most of the cat- erpillars came from a neighbor's place. They came over the fence into the house, and even into the closets. They would get on the clothes hung on the line, and when these were worn they poisoned us." A Somervillle physician wrote : " The first we saw of these Fig. -Winter Nest of Brown-tail Moth on Voung Plum Tree. DANGER TO HEALTH 55 moths was in 1S97. The first cases of poisoning I saw were on Spring Hill road and Park street. I saw a number of cases, and they were all about the same, except that they varied in point of severity. Some of the cases were very obstinate, and did not respond well to treatment. The same symptoms developed in nearly all cases. The trouble begai> Fig. S. — Cocoon of Brown-tail Moth in Pear Leaves. with an intense irritation, then an eruption appeared, resem- bling eczema, with a sort of watery blister on the top. There was intense irritation all over the body, on the head, arms,, and limbs. I saw numbers and numbers of cases of this poisoning ; I should say nearly a hundred cases in all came under my observation. The irritation seemed to remain and EXPLANATION. ^Ar&6 infested ln/89£ WELLESLEY. \ /NEEDHAM )V-J^ATICKVV .SHERBORI^' DOVER /wesVHAM\^ L C . ; voodV r > 1 ( 7 ^ CANTON \ J r \ /7' VfiOLBROOK? --^ y IVALPOLE/ V- •" X ^ . , - . Vl^ORFOLK,' /SHARON \sTOU&hton| avqn >r-mN(.TOH\ \H/^ ?r?i;^::;:::;;::^:'|;|'S: ^i'i'l'''^'-" 1' "' ■ ^s ^ ! ; c 1 [ I'^i'-l ^^^^^H != !-;i: it i*'»S^^ Shi^ig ,[ ! ' ;':';'■■; ^ | ; J F ^ JlX ff ;|;!: M^N i;:!!'!:;! ^^^^^^^H •5 :'i:i'i: ■ M^' ; !' ■1' : y^W■\\\\\\ N !;Ni';; ; ; |! Mr ^1 i ^' ■■' '-^ : ! ' 2 2 : : ! ! i ' : : : : i i ''%>•: '^V ^ ■ -^ ', - ^ ■ T ' r • ^ : '- ■; « ^ ^S ' 'r :;ii i':':: '''SSi:!' 1^ ' 1 '' ^^^^^^^^m M|:;M;:; \\{: h 1: : I ^ M i ' € ^ : :;::::■::! i :M;H;;^ |i h:: :;iM [| ;;i ; ' : i;! ■; \\ M :;' h\ M K : I >f 1 t'-''i''\' '■'■''- '■','[%' ^ 5 /Tax C«E5 ,jiX}?*t '© i?*r: ^ ,¥ r ^ X# 'i*? t»^ tT5? !* ' ° ' *??T T»*Ji tr ^» '*t >%*■ ! i%V ' t r* !» [ 'ti' ^ t _ ; ' It ^rUi-T** ► L. 'T5*>'?5. , . , J . .