Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-07-17
STOCK BoRER--DOES
1T WEAR STRIPES?

/
ing was issued today from the Office
of Charles D. Woods director Of the
Maine Agricultural Experiment Sta
ton at the University Of Maine:
| If you find a worm like borer tun-
neling through the stalk OF your corn.
potatoes, tomatoes or other plants,
take a good look at it and then de-
eide whether it is an American or the
notorious immigrant from Europe.
If it has a black head and a white
body with black or brown dots re-
gard it with suspicion and apply to
the Maine Agricultural Experiment
! Station for q Farmers Bulletin on
THE European Corn Borer." 500
copies Of which the U. s. Department
of Agriculture has sent US for dis
tribution. ..s.
If, however, it has a blonde head
and its body is brownish with five
white stripes. one running down the
middle of the back and two on each
side. don't get excited for that's our
old familiar enemy which has been
with us off and on for these many
years. You can tell it easily from
the fact that the side white stripes
do not extend all the way to the head
SO that there is BLACK and blue
space near that end Of the body which
makes the caterpillar look as II 1t had
been bruised.
Its presence in a young stalk OF
corn is very clearly indicated by the
whiting, breaking down and death
of the top, and by the presence OF
round hole in the side Of the stalk.
plugged with the brown excrement OF
the caterpillar within.
/. 1t ipfests a great variety Of other
plants in a precisely similar way. 1t
is most noticeable in early spring in
bluegrass, by roadsides or around
there being betrayed by the whiten-
ing of single heads of the grass while
=, all the rest of the plant is green. AT
this time it is of small size, and
finds sufficient food within the grass
| stem; but later it is compelled to
resort to thicker stemmed plants, and
it is at this time that it may appear
in fields of corn.
Going in usually from outside the
field. its injury is, as a rule, almost
wholly confined to the outer rows. II
is probable that where the injury is
not limited to the margins of the
field, but Is general throughout its
| area, the eggs were laid in fall in
grass or thick stemmed weeds in
corn fields, where these have sprung
up profusely after the corn has been
laid by. The burrow which the stalk
| horror q Wi he CT
wards from the entrance opening, and
of course varies in size with the
growth of the larva. Sometimes in
leaving a stalk it makes a new hole
above that by which it entered and
it may in this way burrow in sue
cession several different stalks and
several different kinds of plants. Corn
is injured by it while from two tc
10 inches high.
Besides the corn, wheat, and blue
grass already mentioned. it may in
fest oats. and timothy. various gar
den crops-including potatoes, toma-
toes, rhubarb and spinach-black-
berry and raspberry canes, the
thick stemmed weeds-such as rag
weed, burdock. and cocklebur-a con-
siderable variety of garden flowers
and also the new growth Of the peach
currant. grape, apple. willow. etc. In
deed. it's food plants are so numer-
Gus as to indicate a practical indif-
ference to kinds, the only necessary
condition being a relatively thick
stem. soft enough to allow it to
enter and feed freely within. In the
small grains and larger grasses. like
oats and timothy. it makes its pres
ence manifest by killing or even cut
ting off the stem within an ensheath-
ing leaf, thus causing the head and
the whole plant above the injury to
turn white, and presently to dry up
1t is only one of several insects which
produce this general effect at this
time, but its own injury may be at
once distinguished by the round hole
which it leaves in the stem of the
infested plant.
The caterpillar, when full grown,
pupates. as a rule. within it's last
burrow. commonly below the open
ing at which it overwhelmingly a
precautions against it's destruction by
the whitening and breaking away of
the upper part Of the injured plant.
The pupa is light mahogany-brown,
about three fourths of an inch in
length. and bears at the tip Of the
body pair of spines. From it comes
out fawn-gray or mouse colored
moth with the outer third of the
wings paler and bordered within by
a whitish cross-line.
There is but one brood in a year,
and by the end Of June the caterpil-
lars are over half grown, and have
mostly left the grasses in which they
made their start and entered the
thicker stemmed plants. of course
including corn. They live in this
stage until late in July. when pupa-
ton begins. but larvae have been
found until August IS. The moths
begin to appear about the middle of
August, but continue throughout
September and October. They have
never been found in Information, and
1t seems likely that they lay their
eggs in fall in grasslands. and that
these hatch in fall or the following
spring.
Fortunately. injuries by this insect
are not Of kind to require special
measures of prevention or remedy. 1t
is, Of course, impossible to poison
the larva in the corn field, and the
b. eeding habits of the insect are not
such as to enable us to destroy it in
the pupa state by any ordinary op-
Grafton. If headlands and other
grassy lots adjoining corn show in
early spring an unusual abundance