Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-07-25

The news columns of the Evening
Star have told in the last few days
Of the destruction to lawns and stand
ing crops in this and other States by
the army worm, and The Star has
given the remedy prepared by the
State experts to kill the pest "a solu-
ton of arsenate of lead and water,
one ounce to a gallon of water). It
may be of interest to the readers of
the farm and garden page, how
ever. to have from the pen OF
a noted writer on such sub
j-cts description of this pest
and its habits. Professor E. Dwight
Sanderson, dean of the West Vir-
ginia College of Agriculture, tells
about the army worm as follows;
Almost every year some locality re-
ports serious injury to crops by armies
of caterpillars, which have not been
previously known for many years.
This being the case, the farmers are
at less to combat them. and by. the
time the information has been secured
the pests have completed the damage.
The army worm occurs throughout
the United States. east of the Rocky
Mountains, and lives in low, rank
growths of grass. which form the
normal breeding grounds. When from
an abundance of such food. or through
failure CT the parasites to prevent
their increase the caterpillars become
overabundant, they assume the army
habit and march en- masse, consum-
ing all in their path.
The next year their natural enc
mics will usually have them under
control again and there will be but
little damage, and then they will
not be observed as injurious for a
series of years. though the moths are
always fairly common
How the Worm Is Bred.
In the North the moths appear
early in June and the females lay
the small yellowish eggs in rows of
from ten to fifty in the unfolded
bases of the grass leaves, covering
them with thin layer of glue. over
seven hundred may be deposited by
one female, so that when the young
caterpillars hatch in about ten days,
the progeny OF a few moths might
form a quite destructive army. The
worms usually feed entirely at night,
and thus whole fields will sometimes
be ruined before they are discovered,
though a few generally feed by day,
as they all do in cloudy weather.
The leaves and stalks of grains and
grasses form their favorite food, the
heads usually being cut off. but var
icus garden crops are often seriously
injured if they happen in their path.
Though usually untouched, even
clover is not exempt. In from three
to four weeks the worms have become
full grown and are then about one
and one-half to two inches long, of a
dark gray or dingy black color, with
three narrow, yellowish stripes above,
and a slightly broader and darker one
on each side, quite resembling cut
worms, to which they are nearly re-
lated. They now enter the earth and
transform to pupae, from which the
adult moths emerge in about two
weeks. These lay eggs for another
brood of worms which appear In
September, but are very rarely in
iurious. The moths which develop
from this last brood either hibernate
over winter. or deposit eggs, the
larvae from which become partially
grown before cold weather and then
hibernate. In either case the young
larvae feed in the spring, not usually
doing much damage, pHpate in May,
and the moths of the first generation
appear in June as already described.
Thus in the North there are three
broods a year, the young larvae
usually alternating. while in the
South there may be as many as SIX
generations, and the moths usually
hibernate over winter and lay thelr
eggs in. the spring.
The moths very often fly into hghts
and are among the commonest OF our
plain 'millers." The front wings are
a clay or fawn color. speckled with
black scales. marked with darker
shade or stripe at the tips, and with
distinct spot at the centre which gives
the specific name unipuncta. The
hind wings are somewhat lighter
with blackish veins and darker mar
gins.
Enemies of the Army Worm.
Were it not for other insects
which prey UPON the army worm the
army habit would doubtless be more
often assumed and we should have e
deal with them more frequently. Or.
dinarily, however. the parasitic and
predaceous insects hold them II
check very efficiently, end when ar
outbreak does occur the later broods
OF the same seaso6e<e often entirely