PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 15 



CLIMBING CUT-WORMS. 



Climbing cut-worms were numerous again this year, and several days 

 were spent at Muslvegon with Mr. Rood in studying their habits and in 

 testing various remedies on them. Fully nine out of every ten of the 

 climbing cut-worms were the mottled cut- worms, Mamestra suhjuncta. The 

 other two cut-worms, one of red color speckled with gray, and the other 

 large and white with black dots, would not have been common enough to 

 have done much injury. Including all three species we had no diflSculty 

 in finding from 75 to 800 cut-worms to each tree in a single night. This, 

 however, was in a more limited area than it was last year, as Mr. Rood 

 cultivated the most of his orchard very thoroughly last year, and as a 

 result the cut-worms were not a serious pest except in the vineyard where 

 grapes and apples were both growing and thorough cultivation was 

 impossible. Mr. Rood's method of killing the cut- worms has already been 

 given quite fully in last year's Agricultural Report. His method this 

 year was much the same. He used bands on the trunks to prevent the 

 cut-worms reaching the leaves. About 9 or 10 o'clock he would start out 

 with a lantern and, with an old leather mitten on the right hand, would 

 crush the cut-worms that had already gathered on the trunk below the 

 baud. He also had traps of rough boards around the base of each tree, 

 and most of the cut-worms that came after this would congregate under 

 these broad strips to remain over the day. From these traps he would 

 collect as many more each morning and place the catch before his flock of 

 poultry which greedily devoured the whole in short order. This process 

 of collecting was continued for at least two weeks before there was any 

 perceptible decrease in the number of cut-worms. 



In my own experiments, four kinds of band were used, viz.: tin, wool, 

 cotton, and a tar band known as catterpillar lime, or, as the Germans call 

 it,"raupenleim." Unfortunately for this experiment, we had no rain to wet 

 the bands, and all of them, except the tin collars, worked to perfection. 

 We however poured water on the wool band and found that it protected 

 quite as well as when dry. The cotton band is the best of all and the 

 cheapest, so long as it is dry, but so soon as wet (and the weather is 

 usually rainy in the spring) it packs and then affords no protection. The 

 raupenleim is slightly more expensive. It worked nicely except on very 

 cool nights, when it was likely to become a little too stiff', and then the 

 cui-worms would scramble over. The tin collar is but little better than 

 nothing. The cut-worm, when it comes to the collar, will travel around 

 until it comes to the lap, or where the two ends meet, and then it will 

 climb up almost as readily as on the bark. The tin collar is also more dif- 

 ficult to fit to the tree than the band and is more expensive. The cone- 

 shape pasteboard is also difficult to fit to the trunk and is also very easily 

 moved in working or cultivating around the trees. It is better adapted 

 to small trees and grapevines. The wool band is undoubtedly the best 

 and will prove the cheapest and most satisfactory in the end. 



If to prevent the climbing cut-worms from reaching the tree tops were 

 sufficient, the putting of a wool band on the trunk would be enough; but 

 a man who is troubled with climbing cut-worms should try to rid his 

 fields of them. He should not only keep them from his trees, but he 



