﻿56 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



where there is no danger of its poisoning other animals. Logs or 

 fences over running streams should be removed; otherwise the worms 

 will cross on them. 



Hogs, as already stated, are very fond of them and may often be 

 used to good advantage ; and so may chickens, geese, and other fowls- 



STOIMAKY. 



To summarize from what has preceded, the more important points 

 in the history of the Army Worm, and what we now know of it may 

 be thus stated : 



The Army Worm comes from a buff-colored moth having a con- 

 spicuous white speck about the middle of each of the front wings. 

 This moth haunts our fields from the middle of June till Winter. 

 Those which issue early in the season probably lay their eggs in 

 Fall, while those which issue later hibernate and lay their eggs in 

 Spring. The eggs are most probably laid on mature grass and grain 

 stalks, whether cut and in stack, or standing. They are either inserted 

 between the stalk and sheath, or attached in rows along the stalk. 

 The worms, when not excessively numerous, hide during the day and 

 are seldom noticed. In years of great abundance thoy are also gen- 

 erally unnoticed during their early life. The earliest acquire full 

 growth and commence to travel in armies and to devastate our fields 

 and attract attention, about the time that winter wheat is in the 

 milk. They soon afterwards descend into the ground and thus sud- 

 denly disappear, to issue again two or three weeks later as moths. 

 The bulk of the worms become moths in this latitude the same sea- 

 son ; but a few probably hibernate in the pupa state below ground, 

 and the proportion of these increases as we go north. There is but 

 one generation annually. The worms abound during wet Springs, pre- 

 ceded by one or more very dry years. They are preyed upon by nu- 

 merous enemies which so effectually check their increase during 

 years of great multiplication, that two great Army Worm years have 

 never followed each other and are not likely to do so. They may be 

 prevented from invading a field by judicious ditching, and burning 

 over a field in Winter or early Spring, effectually prevents their 

 hatching in such field. 



