192 



CATERPILLAR PESTS. 



caterpillars need quite distinct treatment and cannot be checked by the 

 same methods as other caterpillars. 



The principal precaution against them lies in clean cultiva- 

 tion, which includes putting all waste lands, boundary strips, etc., 

 in good grass; large areas of weeds and low vegetation promote 

 cut-worms, affording a breeding place from which the caterpillars or 

 moths come. 



When the caterpillars attack a crop, heaps of any green vegetation 

 should be placed in the field to attract them. This is not only neces- 

 sary to supply them with some other food than the delicate young plants, 

 but large numbers will be trapped in this way and can be collected daily 

 and put into water. 



The use of poisoned baits of bran or bhusa and arseniate is a remedy in 



use elsewhere; it mil prob- 

 ably be found suitable and 

 has given good results on an 

 experimental scale of 5 acres 

 (see page 287). 



When the cultivators are 

 familiar with the habits of 

 the pest, they are able to 

 destroy it by searching daily 

 for the holes of the cater- 

 pillars, betrayed by the 

 green leaves of the food 

 taken in the night to the 

 burrow. This is the sim- 

 plest remedy and one that, 

 energetically applied, averts 

 a great loss in opium and 

 tobacco crops. 



Fig. 217. 

 Sairy Caterpillar of Behar. 



When possible, irrigation brings up the caterpillars and in bad cases 

 would clear the field ; simply flooding' the field once is suflicient to bring 

 up all the caterpillars in the soil when they may be destroyed or they may 

 be left to the mynas to eat. It is stated that the caterpillars, when on 

 their nightly prowls in search of plants, can be trapped in smooth holes 

 made in the soil with a pointed stick ; the stick is rotated till a n«?at hole 

 with smooth sides is produced ; a caterpillar falling in cannot get out and 

 is kiUed next day. 



The outbreaks of surface caterpillars which take place after the cold 

 weather are preceded by the emergence of the moths, a phenomenon at 



