The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1920-08-12
orms before they do very much dam

worms before they do very much dam
lage.",
Professor Copradi probably knows
more about bugs and insects than any
other man in South Carolina and his
explanation to farmers and others
are such that the farmer readily un-
derstands the problems the chief is
attempting to explain.
The army worm develops from eggs
which are layed by moth, very
similar to the ordinary candle fly and
this moth lays hundreds of eggs, each
eggs producing a worm of eXtraordi-
nary appetite, and which literally eats
its way through crop. The multipli-
cation of the pest is so rapid that if
other parasites did not prey upon the
worm itself, its control would prob
ably be out of the question.
Fortunately, little fly can kill the
worm quicker than they can multiply.
This fly is commonly known as the
red tailed fly and is distinguished
from the ordinary house fly by the
brownish colored tail and brownish
head. The fly Is very active and is
clever hand at killing the worms. His
methods of killing worms Is to lay his
egg on the worm, the egg soon hatch
ing and bringing forth a smaller
worm which devours the army worm
and turns into another fly capable of
laying countless other eggs on
worms.
I. The fly Is clever. 1t lays its egg on
the back of the worm, and places 1t
in such position that the worm can
not bite it, or scrape 1t off. The egg
is easily seen and looks like a little
white dot upon the back Of the worm.
The incubation of larvae of the fly is
rapid and In few days, not only is
the worm killed, but another fly, cap
able of killing thousands Of other
worms is hatched out and starts its
own work of multiplying. Shortly, the
flies SO outnumber the worms that
there are not sufficient worms for the
flies. to lay eggs upon. The fly then
lays more than one egg on each worm
but rarely is the case that fly will
lay more than one egg on each worm,
when there are plenty Of worms on
which to feed.
"The army worm," said Professor
Conradi, lit not especially fond of
cotton. Figuratively speaking, if you
had banquet for army worms, and
all the crops of the farm on the table
and offered Mr.. Army Worm some
cotton, he'd likely decline and ask his
neighbor to. please pass the vetch, or
some crab grass, or other vegetation.
However, if there was nothing else,
he'd eat the cotton to keep from
starving. There are many forms of
vegetables that the army worm pre-
fers, but when starvation faces him
he'll eat cotton.
Lots of farmers have seemingly
heavy infestation in field of alfalfa
with cotton only few feet away. A
road or path may be between the
two and the farmer is discouraged for
he can see no hope of killing out the
millions Of worms in his alfalfa patch
before they cross over to his cotton.
When the parasite Is at work, there
is little damage to be expected. The
infected worms hardly have sufficient
strength to cross over to the cotton
and would not climb up and destroy
cotton If he succeeded in getting
across this hot space Of ground that
was comparatively without vegeta-
tion.'
Farmers have stated that they have
had outbreaks of the worm and that
from millions of them in small
patch, they have seen them suddenly
20 away. The worms did not crawl
away, but the work of the fly preying
upon them Is what killed off the
worms faster than they could breed.
Worms have been found practically
all over the state. In a very heavily
infested region some time ago, Pro-
fessor Conradi was called to help fight
them. He went into the field and ex-
amined the worms. saying nothing
about his examination or his findings.
When the anxious farmers asked what
they must do, he told them to do
nothing at all, that within ten days
they would doubtless all be gone.
Seeing millions of the worms, the
farmers thought that the chief was
crazy, but at the end of the time the
worms were gone and the farmers
were at loss to explain where they
had gone. The parasite had done its
work and done it well.
Army worms have been found in
many sections of the county. They
are scattered over different spots and
up until the present time have done
practically little damage. Some dam
age, of course has been done, but IT
is slight The chiefs advice to farm
ers is to do nothing at present if the
worms are infested by parasite. Ex-
animation of the worms will readily
SHOW whether or not they are infect