Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-06-07
OUR INSECT PESTS.
INQUIRIES AND REPORTS FROM
VARIOUS LOCALITIES.
A Worm Pest-Black Bugs Among
Gooseberries- Grasshoppers ia
Vineyards Hawk Moths.

in a letter written py 6 E Merriam, of
Apex, San Diego county, dated May 2lst, a
plague Of cut-worms in the vineyards in
that vicinity is described, and from which
letter the following extracts are taken
The cut worm, if it is & cGt-woTnl. works as
much by day as by night, we ma i oLI. .
halt an inch in loose soil, but 1t seems TO prefer
10 lie while quiescen. under grass on top OF the
ground, in the creYices OF boxes un0ef poaTos
and often under leaves they are ever! mere
ut irsJ when Young the WorIi - very ot1hi OF
.yreeuisb black IN color. IS Il grows II gets
lighter, turning grGyish yellow striped etc
When ftIll-groWn il measures about TWO inches
IN length and nearly Qne-GuGrter OF an men II
diameter. ! took hoe THIS morning tht.y .lstl
and walked over the vineyard, and only IN u
few spots found worms n large NUMB eis IN
placcs where they mad been very thick, tney
are all in the chrysalis stage. IN fact, ] think
all viii be in that stage IN few days. In some
places BY pulling aside old dried grass and noe
the surface OF the ground, found the cnTysalls
as thick as they could we'll be crowded. The
worm changes to q brown chrysalis, with very
tender she'll, but does not spin q cocoon.
The specimens sent arrived in bad eondi-
ton, the gentleman who presented the
letter could not give further description OF
the CaterpillaTs than il contained. de asks
the following questions:
Can YOU give me any Information az 10 what
class of Insects deposits the eggs which produce
those caterpilisrs or eut-woTms? May more than
one brood be expected, II 50, HhenT "here
did they come trombone being seen the pre-
vious year and now the country is covered by
them What remedy would you advise Tor
immediate relief?
WHAT THEY PROBABLY ARE.
Reply: From the contents of the letter,
my impressions are that the Caterpliiars
described are species Of what are commonly
termed the army-worm. If they are, those
now in the pupa state will produce moths
during the present month; and If So
another brood Of caterpillars may be ex-
pecte6 this season.
Ny reasons for giving this opinion are as
follows In the Northern Atlantic States
there is said to be only one brood of the
so-called army worm each year, but Pro
fessors Riley and Thomas state that in the
vicinity of St Louis and in Southern ILL
nois, there are two or three broods. Pro
fessor Thomas states that the time required
by these insects for passing through the
various stages of insect life, is about as fol-
lows Egg, IA days larva, 30 days; pupa,
II days and a moth commences laying
her eggs in from y to 10 days, making g
total of seventy-seven days. Now, if these
insects belong TO the army worm tribe, and
the first eggs were deposited by the 9Th of
April, allowing fourteen days before hatch
ing, and thirty days in the larva state the
full-grown larva would enter the pupa
state about the 10Th of May. The perfect
insects should then emerge from the pupa
state after remaining seventeen days
about the 4th or 9th of Jdne-then allow
ing twenty-six days from the perfect insect
emerging from the pupa until the second
brood of eggs is Matched, the Larvae of the
second brood would appear early III July.
HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM.
As to where the worms come from,
would say that, for the present, we know
the pests are on the premises, and the i'm
portant query Is, how 10 destroy them? To
this end i.would advise that the vineyard
grounds be thoroughly but lightly cult
waited, and then rolled, by which method
the pupa can be destroyed to a great ex-
tent On removing the surface ground
from around the vines by hoeing and by
passing a roller over it, should the cater
pillar appear on the vines, take green alfalfa
ton Of one pound of Paris green to fifteen
or twenty gallons Of water and place near
the trunk Of the vine for the worms TO feed
upon. 1t would be well to try this. and no
doubt quite portion Of them will thereby
be destroyed. Or spray the vines with a
solution Of ~le gallon Of alcohol, SIX
pounds of buhach, and forty gallons OF
water. This VIII destroy al the catcrpil-
lars which the solution touches.
Mr. Merriam also describes an enemy TO
the caterpillars. This is probably the
larvae or grub5 Of the ground bcetles-the
Ctlsjsopta, or Of the rose beetle hy1ii
d.