y) FARMERS’ BULLETIN 1739. 
Cutworm injury almost invariably occurs in the spring, the plants 
usually being cut off at the surface, or a little below the surface, of 
the ground, beginning as soon as the first plants sprout and con- 
tinuing until late June or early July, by which time the worms are 
full grown. Feeding takes place at night, the worms resting during 
the day beneath débris or in the soil at a depth of from one-half to 1 
inch below the surface, and since they closely resemble the color of 
the soil in most cases, the cause of the injury is often not apparent. 
However, if the soil surrounding the cut-off plant be examined care- 
fully, the culprit will quite likely be found curled up in the soil as 
illustrated (fig. 1, ¢). 
LIFE HISTORY OF CUTWORMS. 
‘he various cutworms are known under a number of popular 
names, such as the glassy cutworm, greasy cutworm, variegated cut- 
worm, clay-backed cutworm, etc., but the injuries caused by them 
are very similar and their habits in general are also much the same. 
The parents of cutworms are grayish or brownish moths or “ millers,” 
which commonly occur at hghts during summer evenings. Each 
moth may lay from 200 to 500 eggs, either in masses or singly, in 
fields covered with dense vegetation, and hence are to be found more 
often in cultivated fields which have been in grass or weeds the 
preceding fall. The eggs hatch in the fall, a few weeks after they 
are laid, usually during September, and the young cutworms, after 
feeding on grass and other vegetation until cold weather, pass the 
winter as partly grown caterpillars. If such infested fields are left 
to grass, no noticeable injury is likely to occur, but when it is broken 
up and planted to corn or other wide-row crops, the worms, being 
suddenly placed on “short rations,” wreak havoe with the newly 
planted crops, the nearly full-grown worms feeding greedily and 
consuming an enormous amount of food. In northern latitudes they 
attain full growth and stop feeding in late June or early July, and 
change to the pupal or resting stage. The injury often ceases so 
suddenly that farmers are at a loss to account for the fact. 
CONTROL OF CUTWORMS. 
Land to be planted to corn. the following spring, especially such 
land as has laid in grass for a considerable time and is likely to 
contain cutworms, should be plowed in midsummer or early fall 
about the time the eggs are laid, or better, before the eggs are laid, 
for then vegetation which is suitable for the moths to lay their eggs 
upon is removed. The earlier the preceding year grasslands to be 
planted to corn are plowed, the less will be the probability that the 
