Press Herald cites 1904 report on invasive moth written by Edith Patch
A 1904 report written by Edith Patch, who was a pioneering entomologist and University of Maine faculty member, was cited in a Portland Press Herald article about invasive browntail moths. In Maine, a dry spring has fostered a bumper crop of the moths that cause an itchy rash, and a state entomologist said the worst conditions in a decade could last into next year, according to the article. In Patch’s report, she described how the City Improvement Society of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, went to elaborate lengths to get rid of the moths the previous winter. The society gave $50 to the superintendent of schools, who paid children 5 cents a dozen for winter nests. Hundreds of nests were collected by the children and burned in the school furnace, the article states. “In March, groups of Portsmouth newsboys were to be seen scanning the branches overhead and darting off eagerly for browntail nests,” Patch wrote. “About the same time, a Kittery urchin was heard to remark somewhat wistfully, ‘The Portsmouth kids are makin’ their fortune pickin’ brown-tails.’”