Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1914-09-17
To Stop The Advance Of The
Army Worm.

To Stop The Advance Of The
Army Worm.
Flowed. burrows and Poison for New
Outbreak of Pests That Threatens
Fields of Wheat, Oats, Corn, Tim
othy and Blue Grass. Lawns in
Washinstou, D. O., Overrun.
Letters, telephone messages, and in
dividual callers have been soliciting aid
from the United States Department Of
Agriculture to stop the advance of the
hordes of army worms that threaten
their fields of wheat. oats. corn, tim
othy, blue grass and other grasses
There seems to be general outhreak
of this pest throughout the North, east
of the Rocky Mountains There worms
are emerging from eggs laid beTtnoths
that apparently swarmed up from The
Southwest Great numbers of these
moths have been noticed in the vicinity
of Washington during the past month,
hundreds of their broken wings having
been seen near the Union Station, and
Lawns in the capital are beirg oyerrun
by this pest.
The army worm is a smooth, striped
caterpillar about an inch and a quarter
long and a quarter of an inch in diane
ter It is rather dark in appearance.
While normally it feeds by night and
hides by day, not being generally no
ticed, as soon as it has increased to
such number that it, food supply falls
short it starts to travel and. becoming
bolder, feeds both night and day. The
moth from which this worm matches is
brown with white spot on the center
of each fore wing 1t measures about
an inch and one-half from wing to wing.
HOW WORMS MAY BE DESTROYED
It the worms have not yet attacked
a field the most practical way to keep
them out is to pillow burrows in front Of
them. throwing the furrow in the direc-
tion toward which they are travelling
The worms will fall into the furrow and
when this is full they may be killed
either by dragging a log back and forth
in the furrow or By destroying the
worms in holes previously dug at inter-
uals of 20 feet in the bottom of the
furrow. Kerosene poured on them III
the holes will destroy them.
If the worms are already in the field
the following mixture which will It'll
tract the worms and destroy tliSla,
should be spread about:
l pound of paris green poisonous
SO pounds of wheat bran.
Juice of half dozen oranges.
Bring this mixture to stiff denQh
by the use of dilute molasses and sea
ter it amongst the WORMS. care siiDsi4d
be taken to keep this dough from chill
dren or domestic animals.
Prompt action to prevent the worms
from infesting field is much better
than later efforts to attempt to kill
them in the grain Once the caterpil-
lars have infested field the measures
necessary to destroy them may serious
ly hurt or e1endes troy the crop
The worms at first are almost always
localized in some definite breeding
place in the field, and immediate efforts
should be taken to eradicate them in
these small areas before they haye had
time to spread The normal breeding
place of the army worm is in rank
grass, such as is usually found along
the edges of sWamps or in spots of
pasture land that have been overfer-
tilted. They are practically never
found in swamps, because the worm
needs reasonably dry place in which
to breed
Clean cultivation, rotation of crops,
cleaning up of fence corners, close pas
turage, and the burning over of waste
grasslands in the spring or fall are
good measures to prevent recurrence
of the army worm.
Note. The illustrations of this army
worm may be seen at the office of the
Board of Trade on West Washington
street.