Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1902-05-16

there. You doubtless have it here. The
worms behave very much like cut
worms, diving many years in success
sion, and while they are everywhere
present in meadows and fence corners,
farmers generally overlook them alto
gether. The fever for travel appears
to come on them when they become
very abundant in such places. and then
they move OFF, all in the same general
direction, as ii impelled by some COM
mon purpose. 1t is curious to witness
so sudden change in the character Of
an insect. Ordinarily it is very shy
and retiring ROW it travels in the
bright sunshine, avoiding nothing,
crossing the dusty pixies, where it IS
crushed by the passing wheels and
where it is completely at the mercy OF
the birds and other enemies. climbing
over distractions, tumbling into
bitches and clambering as best it can
up the opposite side-if this is not an
insect gone mad, it is something ex-
tIemely like it.
Probably not a third of these tray
cling worms ever complete their growth
and produce moths, even when man
does not take a hand in their destruc-
ticn. The birds, if left undisturbed, de-
stroy many of them; wasps capture
them for their young, and small fly
places its eggs on their bodies from
which grubs hatch and bore into the
interior to destroy them. At one time
had large numbers Of the worms
gathered so as to secure the other
stages. Three-fOurths of them proved
to be infested with the fly parasite, ana
[ found it rather difficult 10 get any
other stage than the worm.
The army worm has been known to
farmers in this country for more than
two centuries. It was one Of the
first to be recorded in the beginnings
Of our agricultural literature. The
worms are said to have made extern
stve ravages in corn in 1852, and again
in 1866. In 1743, we read people
we're greatly alarmed and kept days
of fasting. because of millions Of
worms, in armies, appearing and
threatening to cut off every green
thing" From that day to this they
have attracted attention and excited
alarm periodically by their outbreaks.
Their destructive habit of travelling
in a body. eating everything in their
path seems to be the result of dis
position on the part of the moths to
place their eggs i'm grass land that is
left undisturbed and thus furnishes a
quiet retreat and food for their very
youne. After these become so abund-
ant in such places that they can To
longer secure enough food they begin
to move outward to fresh pastures.
Corn wheat, oats, millet, almost any
thing Of the grass kind, is under these
circumstances stripped of blades, and
if not too tough the tops themselves
may he eaten off, / have seen a field
Of millet utterly ruined i'm a couple of
days, nothing being left over much Of
the field after the worms had passed
on. except the gnawed stems.
The outbreaks are sometimes so sud
den that they find farmers utterly
| unprepared to do anything to save
crops and more than one man has
stood by, feeling completely at loss
what to do, while the results of his
labor were being swept away by a
horde of hungry worms.
1t is possible to check the advance
of such armies by promptly making ;
trench before them, and dragging ii
it after a horse or mule a heavy post
so as to crush the worms as they &C
cumulate. A barrel of coal oil can b.
made to help greatly in this work o
destroying the worms. Post hole
dug at intervals of a rod or so in tn,
trench lessen the labor by trapping
the worms in quantities where they
can be conveniently drenched with the
LA I'D r,1o Ia
advancing army is to be recommend
ed, when a suitable spraying outfit is
at hand. Ordinarily there is no time
| to get such apparatus, and the trench
and coal oil will be found by most
| farmers their most effective means
of destroying the worms.
! AS in the case Of the. chinch bug, the
army worm should be dealt with be-
fore it begins to make trouble. The
use of fire on infested strips Of grass
land should keep this pest in subiec-
ton on a farm.
The important corn insect in this
part of the United States is the corn
worm. IT is a near relative Of the
army worm, the adult insect being .
| brown moth, while the worm is not
very different in color and structure
| from the young army worm. 1t is al
ways with us. l have never known a
season when its injuries were not
somewhere severe. From its manner
of attack and the protection which the
husks of corn ears give it, it is the
most difficult insect to deal with of all
the important crop pests known to
me- insecticides are useless against
it. Birds can not, at any rate dc
rot, secure it. The only periods when
it is in any degree at our mercy is
when it has gone into the soil to pass
the winter, which it does toward fall
and. again, in midsummer when il
appears as an adult moth Winter
blowing will destroy the dormant pu-
pae in the soil of fields, and lessen the
numbers for the succeeding summer;
but TO have any very decided effect
this practice must be general, for the
moths fly actively and soon find their
way into fields not already occupied.
The adult moth is one of the few
Injurious species that are attracted to
lights to such an extent as to make
this a practicable means Of lessening
! DIV MI q