OCR Text |
Show NEW ALFALFA PEST Army Cut Worm, What is is Like and How to Destroy it. The western army cut worm, or alfalfa al-falfa worm, has appeared In enormous numbers In quite a number of districts dis-tricts In the stale. Prof. Lewis A. Merrill, of the agricultural experiment station, reports serious trouble at Holden, and several places In Tooele, Sanpete and Sevier counties, with several other smaller outbreaks in a number of places In the central and southern parts of the state. About six or seven years ago these worms appeared In such enormous numbers In the fields around Tooele city that they ate the alfalfa fields entirely bare and kept them In this condition for several weeks. Dr. K. D. Ball, director of the experiment station at Logan, gives the following description of the worm and methods of combating It: These caterpillars are something over an Inch long, when full grown, brownish or grayish In color with light stripes lengthwise of the body. They puss the winter hibernating under rubbish, rub-bish, weeds and other places of protection, pro-tection, and come out in the spring to complete their growth. If vegetation ts scarce they often travel in one direction, di-rection, and hence the name "army" cut worm. When they strike an alfalfa alfal-fa field, they leave off this habit. and remain practically stationary. They become fully grown In May In the warmer sections of the state, and somewhat later In the colder regions. "Soon after the first cutting of alfalfa alfal-fa Is taken off, they disappear into the ground, where they remain two weeks or more and reappear as brown moths, such as fly around the lights In June and July, These lay eggs to produce caterpillars again 1n the fall. Jt Is very difficult to destroy this pest when It once gets Into a growing crop, A migrating swarm of them can be stopped by a ditch full of water, into which they w'ill fall and pile up. From this ditch they can be shoveled out and burled. The watei does not kill them and if they dry out onre they anas an-as lively as ever. If water is not available, avail-able, a trench a foot In depth, with the side towards which they are traveling made perpendicular or a little overhanging, will serve to stop them and by digging pits along the trench they will fall Into these and can be burled. On grain fields where the grain Is small ,a large number can be killed during the wanner part of the day by running a roller over them. In alfalfa fields there Is little possl-blllty possl-blllty of destroying them until the n! falfa Is cut. Those that remain after the hay has been gathered can be destroyed by dragging with a brush drag which is heavily loaded with rocks. This will crush them Into the ground and will destroy most of them. It hns almost Invariably happened that where they become hs numerous as they are this year their parasites Increase so rapidly that the cut worms are usually destroyed by their enemies so that scarcely a single worm Is left to reappear again the next year. In the case of the Tooele otubreak there were none seen after they went Into the ground. A swarm of them appeared ap-peared lit Montana some years ago and disappeared in the same way. Another Remedy. "In case these worms get into young orchards, garden patches or places of like nature, it may be possible to destroy de-stroy them by mixing bran or shorts, IS pounds to one pound of white arsenic ar-senic and two pounds of white sugar. By slightly dampening this mixture the sugar will cause the arsenic to stick to the bran and the mixture can then be sow n broadcast and the worms destroyed. Care should be taken in using this method to keep chickens or stock away from the mixture. Another Anoth-er method is to take young clover or alfalfa and dip It into a mixture of lead arsenic and water, about fire pounds of the poison to 20 gallons of water, and then sprinkle this clover over the place where the worms are thickest." |