The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-08-04
To Stop Advance of Army Worm.

Letters, telephone messages, and
individual callers have been solicit
ing aid from the United States De-
partment of Agriculture to stop the
advance of the hordes of army worms
that threaten their fields of wheat,
oats, corn, timothy, blue grass, and
other grasses. There seems to be a
general outbreak of this pest through
out the North, east of the Rocky
Mountains. These worms are emerg-
ing from eggs laid by moths that ap-
parently swarmed up from the south
west. Great numbers of these moths
have been noticed in the vicinity of
Washington during the past month";
hundreds of their broken wings hav-
ing been seen near the Union Sta
ton. Lawns in the capital are being
overrun by this pest.
The army worm is a smooth, strip
ed caterpillar about an inch and a
quarter long and a quarter of an inch
in diameter. tt is rather dark in ap-
pearance. While normally it feeds
by night and hides by day, not being
generally noticed, as soon as it has
increased to such a number that it's
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 a 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
If the worms have not yet attacked
field the most practical way to keep
them out is to plow furrows in front
of them, throwing the furrow in the
direction 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- OF
by destroying the worms in holes
previously dug at intervals of 20
feet in the bottom of the furrow.
Kerosene poured on them in the holes
will destroy them.
If the worms are already in the
field the following mixture which
will attract the worms and destroy
them should be spread about:
l pound of paris green (poisonous)
SO pounds of wheat bran.
Juice of one-half dozen oranges.
Bring this mixture to a stiff dough
by the use of dilute molasses and
scatter it amongst the worms. Care
| G hoII1d hn 70 bon n Ennn fhiC h
from children or domestic animals.
Prompt action to prevent the
worms from infesting a field is much
better than later efforts to attempt
to kill them in the grain. Once the
caterpillars have infested field the
measures necessary to destroy them
may seriously hurt or even destroy
the crop.
The worms at first are almost al
ways localized in some definite breed
ing place in the field, and immediate
efforts should be taken to eradicate
them in these small areas before
| they have 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 overfertilized They
are practically never found in
swamps, because the worm needs a
reasonably dry place in which to
breed
Clean cultivation, rotation of crops
cleaning up of fence corners, close
pasturage, and the burning over oi
waste grassland in the spring or fal
are good measures to prevent re
currence of the army worm,