320 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



waged upon these insects is particularly due to the presence of certain 

 parasitic ones. Some Ichneumon flies sting the larvae and deposit their 

 eggs within their bodies, and the resulting grubs feed upon them and kill 

 them. Certain parasitic flies especially do an immense amount of good in 

 holding these army-worms in check by depositing their eggs upon them, 

 and the grubs which hatch work their way within and feed upon the 

 tissues of the army-worms. Probably every agriculturist who has ob- 

 served the army-worm marching in great numbers has had his attention 

 called to the presence of vast numbers of flies that buzz around or about 

 the marching army, and have caused him to wonder why and for what 

 purpose they were there. One of these flies is shown in figure 6i, 

 natural size at a, and greatly enlarged at b. A part of an army-worm 

 on which you will see the white eggs of these flies is also shown in 

 figure 6i, natural size at c and enlarged at d. They are to be found in 

 great numbers wherever the army-worms occur in quantities, such as is 

 the case when on the march, and they may be seen darting down and de- 

 positing an egg upon the body of the doomed army-worm. The agricul- 

 turist then should be delighted to see these flies about the fields that are 

 infested with army-worms, for it indicates to an almost certainty that 

 the next brood of army worms will be so reduced as to not become 

 especially troublesome. 



REMEDIES. 



Ordinarily for any given locality, it is not especially necessary to 

 take any means of fighting the army-worm each year, because it does 

 not ordinarily occur in that particular locality in sufficient quantities ;o 

 warrant such procedure; and from this very fact is due, no doubt, the 

 want of a knowledge on the part of most of the agriculturists in regard 

 to the habits, life history and methods of controlling this insect ; while 

 those insects that are injuriously abundant each year, the agriculturist 

 soon learns to combat. Unfortunately the army- worms may be very 

 numerous in a meadow or in the low and rank growing places of a grass 

 field and yet not attract any attention from the owner until the larvae 

 have become about half grown, when he will suddenly discover that the 

 plants in such places are being destroyed, and by that time the worms 

 have undoubtedly taken it into their little heads to seek fresh feeding 

 ground. If an agriculturist be fortunate enough to discover the presence 

 of vast numbers of army-worms in the meadows or fields, he should 

 resort to some means of destroying them there, and not allow them to 

 migrate or march to other places. It is possible to spray the badly infested 

 areas with strong arsenical poison, or kerosene mechanically mixed witli 



