Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1877 — The Orchard Caterpillar. [ARTICLE]

The Orchard Caterpillar.

At this season the orchard caterpillar (Clidocampa Aa mei'icana) commits its depredations in apple trees. The gray, tent-like nests, are entirely too well known to all acquainted with apple trees to need any description. Theeggs are deposited on the smaller branches in clusters containing from 300 to 500 each, by a yellowish browajgjiller, in the latter part of summer, and are protected from the weather by a water-proof varnish. ' They hatch about the time the leaves appear in the spring. The worms are very small at first but continue in size for several weeks. When full grown we are all well acquainted with their appearance. They injure the trees by destroying the foliage and thus taking their strength. They are sometimes so disastrous as to entirelystrip the trees of their leaves. These pests are easily destroyed by attacking them early in the morning while they are all in their nests, with a swab made by wrapping a strip of cloth around the end of a long, slender pole and fastening it with carpet tacks. Saturate the swab wltb kerosene oil and insert it into the nest, turning it aronnd among them until all have been touched. If the swab is kept well saturated with the oil this method will prove entirely effectual. Horace Greeley said that “no man who-harbors caterpillars has any moral right to apples.” Whether this is so or not it is certain we need no better evidence of a slovenly farmer than to see his apple trees covered with caterpillar nests— Husbandman.