The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-15
DESTRUCTIVE WORK
. OF THE ARMY WORM
Havoc II Is Creating 10 Grain Fields,
Meadows and Grass Plots.
IMPORTATION ABOUT THE PESTS

the Department Of In.
structiOns Issued by the State Zoo.
lOgist as to the Best Method Of
Dealing with the Troublesome
Worm Under Different Conditions.
No pest of recent years has done
such a large amount of damage as the
present invasion of the army worm.
From all the agricultural districts of
this part of the state come stories of
the destruction of crops due the army
worm hosts, millions of the little
crawlers invading every promising
grain field and meadow.
But it is not necessary to 60 outside
of the confines of Scranton to get evil
dence of the destructive powers of the
worm. Hundreds of pretty lawns have
been utterly ruined, the grass, after
the visit of the worms. resembling q
field parched and burned by fierce sun
and the absence of water. The division
of entomology of the United States de-
partnent OF agriculture has issued a
pamphlet which gives the following in
formation concerning the army worm
and the hest methods of eXtermnating
it,
THE army worm seems to be an in
digenous North American insect and on
this continent is most abundant in the
United States east of the Rocky Noun
tains. The adult insect is brown
moth with Il white spot on the centre
of each forewing. The eggs are very
minute and white in color. round and
are laid in strings of from two or three
to fifteen or twenty. They are pushed
by the ovipositor of the female moth
down into the inner base of the ter
minal leaf sheaths Of grasses or grain.
A strong effort is apparently made by
the female moth to conceal them They
are laid most abundantly in the thick
est tufts of grass. The eggs are
Matched in from eight to ten days and
the young catapillars feed for time in
the fold of the leaf. growing rapidly
and finally consuming entire leaves.
FEED MAINLY AT NIGHT.
"Under ordinary circumstances and
when not present in great numbers the
larvae feed mainly at night and IN
damp. cloudy weather. remaining hid
den during sunshiney days. In this
respect they resemble in habits the
closely allied cut worms. They reach
full growth in three or four weeks, bur-
row into the ground and transform into
the brown pupal. In this condition
they remain in the summer time on an
average about two weeks. when the
moth again appears. The NUMBER OF
generations each year varies with the
climate and the season. There are In
the more northern states two or three
generations and perhaps six i'm the more
southern states.
with a favorable succession of sea-
sons the insect multiplies in geomet-
rical ratio and at least becomes SO num-
erous as to necessitate migration for
food. 1t then travels and feeds both
day and night and it is then that the
insect becomes very injurious and that
reports of great damage are heard. In
general 1t may be said that the worms
are more apt to make an injurious ap-
pearance i'm a rainy spring or early
summer following a season of compara-
tive drought.
There Is never any demand upon this
office for remedies for the army worm
until it is almost too late to do any i'm
mediate good There are certain old
line measures which may be adopted
to protect certain fields from advanc-
ing armies like the plowing of furrow
with it's perpendicular side towards the
field to be protected and the subsequent
dragging of log through the furrow
to keep the earth friable and kill the
worms which have accumulated In the
ditch and another is the SDrinkling Of
a strip of pasture or field crop In ad-
vance Of an army with Paris green or
London purple in solution. In fields
which the caterpillars have already en-
tered there is little which can be done
for their destruction which does not also
involve the destruction of the crop. The
fields may be sprinkled by means OF
broadcast sprayer with an arsenical SO
luton or they may be rolled with a
heavy roller where one is at hand and
the ground Is level, or a flock Of sheep
may be sent in which will result in
crushing most of the worms by tramp
ling.
WHERE 1T IS NOT INJURIOUS.
the army worm is never seen. or rather.
is never known to be injurious and
these localities owe their exemption un-
doubtedly to the unconscious use Of pre-
ventative methods. Clean cultivation,
rotation of crops. cleaning up fence cor
ners. close pasturage, the burning over
of waste grass land in spring or fall are
all preventative measures of great
value. since where these methods are
in vogue the army worm will never be
able to get a migratory start, or in
other words. 1t never becomes so
abundant as to necessitate migration.
"There is almost no prominent injuri-
Gus insect in whose economy natural
enemies play a more important part
than the army worm. We have said
that in the great majority of cases ac-
tual destructive measures against army
worms which have once taken full pos
session of a grass field are hardly nee
essary This Is because of the fact that
not more than one worm out
of q thousand escapes death from para
site or predaceous insects. Where the
army worm follows its normal habit and
feeds only at night. remaining hidden
during the day under the surface of the
ground at the base of some tuft of rank
growing grass it is protected from these
natural enemies. but when the migra-
tory instinct draws 1t forth and pre-
vents it's normal habit. causing 1t to
march unprotected during the day, the
swift-breeding tachina flies attack it at
once rnultiply most rapidly and in con