South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-05-05
POISONED BRAN IS
BAIT TO CUTWORM
Arsenic and Paris Green May
Be Used But Must Be
Handled With Care.

Tomatoes. cabbage. sweet pota-
toes. lettuce. and other truck plants,
especially those which are started
under glass and transplanted, are
subject to serious injury by cut
worms. These pests appear some
times in great numbers in the spring
and early summer, and frequently
do severe injury before their ravages
are noticed. Their method of at
tack is 70 cut off the young plants
at about the surface of the ground,
and as these caterpillars are of large
size and voracious feeders, they are
capable of destroying many plants
in a single night-frequently more
than they can devOur 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, how
ever as has been demonstrated by
entomologists Of the L. S. depart
ment of agriculture, they readily can
be controlled. even over consider
able areas. The usual method of
control is by the use of poisoned
bats.
How To Mix and Apply.
Take a bushel of dry bran, add
one pound of white arsenic or Paris
green, and mix it thoroughly into
mash with eight gallons of water in
which has been stirred half a gal
lon of sorghum or other cheap mo-
Iasses. CArsenic and Paris green
are deadly poisOns. Handle them
with great care.) This amount will
be sufficient for the treatment 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 a marble, over the
fields where the injury is beginning
to appear and about the bases Of
the plants set out. Apply late in the
Gay, so as TO place the poison about
he plants before night, which is the
time when the cutworms are active.
Apply a second time, if necessary.
Keep children, live stock, and chick
ems away from this bait.
What to- DO When CutwOrms Travel.
When cutwOrms occur in unusual
abundance. which happens locally
and sometimes generally, they eX-
haust their food supply and migrate
t. ether fields This they do literal
lv in armies, assuming what is call
ed the army worm habit. At such
times it is necessary to treat them
Il M
the methods which have been adj
v.sed are valuable in such cases,
they may be too slow TO destroy all
the cutworms. and other methods
mus; he employed. These include
trcnch;ng, ditching. the blowing of
deep burrows i'm advance of the
travelling cutworms to trap them,
and the dragging of logs or brush
through the burrows If the trench
es can be filled with water. the ad-
dition of a small quantity of kero-
sene. so as TO form a thin scum on
the surface, will prove fatal to the
cutwor.ns In extreme cases bar
riers of fence boards are erected and
the tops smeared with tar or other
sticky substances TO stop the cut
worms as they attempt to crawl
over.
Spraying With Arsenicals.
In extremely severe attacks by
cutworms on choice plants there is
sometimes no opportunity to pre-
pare the poisoned bait. In such
cases an arsenate of lead spray will
answer quite as well. In one in
stance a parsley field was sprayed
with fous pounds of arsenate of lead
TO 80 gallons of water; this killed all
The cutworms. whereas if they had
been left alone for a day or two
longer the field probably would
have been destroyed. The result
was a perfect stand-the best ever
made by the grower. In this case
FIVE applications were necessary.
Cultural Methods and Crop Rotation.
Clean cultural methods and crop
rotation are advisable, as are also
fall blowing and disking. TO pre-
vent occurrences of cutwOrms at
tacks.
Many cutworms can be destroyed
/ where it is possible 10 overflow the
field. particularly where irrigation
Is practiced.