The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-11-24
FIGHTING cUTwoRMs
Poisoned Bats Most Successful in
Combating This Pest.


Tomatoes, cabbages, sweet pota-
toes and other vegetables and gard
en- plants, and especially those which
are started under glass and trans
planted, are SUBJECT 10 serious injury
by cutworms. says western paper.
These pests appear sometimes in
| great numbers in the spring and early
| summer, and frequently DO severe in
jury before their rayages are noticed.
Their method of attack is to cut off
the young plants at about the surface
of the ground, and as these caterpil-
lars are of large size and voracious
feeders, they are capable of destroy
ing many plants in a single night
frequently more than they can deyour
Every year these insects, working
generally throughout the United
States, have destroyed hundreds of
| thousands OF dollars worth Of crops
| by the timely application OF remedies
| however, as has been demonstrated
I through field agents and other en-
| tomologists OF the department of az
! rieulture, they readily cen be con
I troled, and large areas have been sue
cessfully treated The usual method
OF control is by the use of poisoned
bats.
Take a bushel of dry bran, add one
| pound Of arsenic or paris green, and
mix it thoroughly into a mash with
eight gallons OF water in which has
been stirred a half gallon of sorghum
or other cheap molasses. This
amount VIII be sufficient for the treat
ment Of about four or five acres OF
cultivated crops After the mash has
| stood for several hours. scatter it, in
| Jumps about the size OF marble, ov-
er the fields where the injury is be-
ginning to appear and about the bas-
es d the plants set out. Apply late
in the day, 90 as TO place the poison
! about the plants before night, which
is the time when the cutworms are
active Apply second time if nee
essary,
When cutworms appear in unusual
abundance which happens locally,
and sometimes generally in some
seasons they exhaust their food sup
ply and are driven to migrate to 9th
er fields. This they do literally in
armies, assuming what is called the
army-worm habit At such times it is
necessary to treat them the same as
army worms while the methods
which have been advised are valuable
in such cases, they may be too slow
TO destroy all the cutworms. and 9th
err methods must be employed. These
include renchug. ditching. the pillow
ing OF deep burrows in advance OF the
travelling cutwornls to trap them, and
the dragging OF LOGS or brush through
the burrows If the trenches can be
flied with water, the addition of a
small quantity OF kerosene, SO as to
form thin scum on the surface VIII
prove fatal to the cutworms. In eX-
IRENE cases, barriers OF fence boards
are erected and the tops smeared to
stop cutworms .es they attempt to
crawl over
In extremely severe attacks by cut
| NSl ms W NAOAh1 FioiNH AilNA q 40 SUM-
times no opportunity to prepare the
poisoned bait. IN such cases an ar
senate Of lead or paris green spray
viii answer quite as we'll In one in
stance a parsley filed was sprayed
with four ponds OF arsenate OF lead
to SO gallons of water this killed all
the cutworms, whereas, If they had
been left alone Tor a day or two long
err the field probably would have been
destroyed. The result, however, was
perfect stand-the best ever made
by the grower. In this case five ap-
plications were made.
Clean cultural methods and crop ro-
tatlon are advisable, as are also fall
blowing and disking, to prevent re
currences OF cutworm attacks. Many
outNorms can be destroyed where it
is possible to overflow the fields, par
ticurarly where irrigation is practis-
cd.