Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 310, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1919 — KILLS TREE PESTS [ARTICLE]

KILLS TREE PESTS

Doctor Woodpecker Is Nature’s Chief Wood Surgeon. In Everlasting Conflict With Million* of Dangerous Enemies That Would Destroy the Life of the Sturdy Forest Monarch*. _ If half a thousand disease germs should suddenly begin eating into the life tissues of your body; you would surely need a doctor, writes F. E. Brimmer in the Farm Journal. Yet more than 500 species of insects prey upon the oak tree,, and still we wonderat its strength and vigor. So much, indeed, that “sturdy as an oak” bus become an advertising slogan. “» - . The 'sturdy oak otyes much of its long life to Doctor Woodpecker, nature's skilled wood surgeon. One borer , would kill a tree single-handed if left at his deadly work long enough; so will a few beetles. A single mother beetle will produce nearly 500,000 young destroyers in a summer of uninterrupted activity. Weevils only stunt the growth of the tree and leave it full of holes, an easy victim to other destroyers. Saw flies, caterpillars, ants and moths are among the hosts of tree pests that damage the outer part of the trees. Agairftt all these the tree is defenseless, except for the busy surgeon. A hungry bird of any other kind cannot help the tree, for the pests are hidden beneath the bark or far under the surface.

Jus°t as plagues epidemics wiped out whole villages of people in the middle ages, so if left to their enemies if would be only a few decades before all forests would be murdered —nothing but dead, grub-bored stubs and fallen trunks left. To prevent this terrible condition nature sends a physician regularly to each patient. Sometimes Doctor Woodpecker has been known to spend as many as three days operating on one very bad case, constantly using to advantage bis treesurgery tools. Generally his incision is only as deep as the thickness of tlffe bark. Often he slides his spearbill between seams or crevices and draws out the worm, leaving no mark or scar on the bark to show where he did it. At other times his cuttings may be deep galleries tunnels or caverns. A great deal of the drumming that we hear is only for sounding purposes —much like a man taps the wall with a hammer to find a studding. When Doctor Woodpecker has discovered a diseased part he directs a rapid fire of rattling beats upon the spot with his pickax bill, raining his hammerlike blows with automatic and astonishing precision, until his prey is brpught to light. Then be thrusts in his barbed bill and. with a sudden backward jerk, brings forth the deadly grub. -