Climbing Cutworms. 649 



also injured grape-vines in California. The pests were especially 

 destructive during the next two or three years in Illinois, Missouri, 

 Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. Almost every year since, their 

 depredations have been noticed in various widely separated locali- 

 ties and on a great variety of plants. 



During the last few years they have appeared in unusual numbers 

 in the peach orchards in the sandy regions of Michigan and New 

 York. In 1894, one Michigan fruit-grower killed 1500 cutworms 

 on some of his trees ; one tree yielded 412 one night, 114 the next 

 night, and 141 the next. His orchard produced only about half a 

 crop of fruit. 



Favorable Conditions for Climbing Cutworms. 



Probably no cutworms assume the climbing habit when there are 

 plenty of low-growing grasses and weeds at hand. Trees in grass or 

 clover are rarely attacked by them, while those in fields kept free 

 from other vegetation by cultivation always suffer the most, as the 

 worms have to either climb or starve. It is found that if grain or 

 some other cultivated crop be grown between the trees, the cut- 

 worms usually turn their attention to the trees only after the crop 

 has been removed. 



All cutworms prefer light, loose soils ; climbing cutworms have 

 done the most damage on plants growing in such soils. The ligbt, 

 warm, sandy soils in which are set many of the peach orchards of 

 Michigan and New York are ideal places for these pests, and hei-e 

 their most destructive work is now being done. 



Thus light, loose soils and a scarcity of low-growing succulent 

 vegetation are conditions that may easily induce cutworms to assume 

 the climbing habit. 



TuEiR Food-Plants. 



Where clean cultivation is thoroughly practiced, thus leaving no 

 alternative but to climb or starve, cutworms will climb almost any 

 plant, even to the tops of high trees. The young cotton-wood, box- 

 elder, maple, birch, and ash trees on the tree plantations in the 

 west are often attacked. In Missouri in 1880, the grass under oaks, 

 elms, and other shade trees was often thickly strewn with leaves 

 and buds severed by cutworms ; fruit-trees, as the apple, pear, and 

 cherry, and a variety of vines and shrubs suffered in a similar man- 

 ner. They have also attacked willow, catalpa, black-walnut, horse- 



