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THE FARMERS HANDBOOK. 



Prodenia litoira Fab. [Syn. Hadena littoralis] — Another species of cutworm 

 that attacks maize. The adult has brown fore-wings with distinct white 

 blotches; its hind-wings are white, with smoky brown tips and thin brown 

 streak, parallel with most of the outer margin. The caterpillar is dark 

 brown, with series of yellow and black spots along each side of its body. 



A Cutworm Moth (Prodenia litura). 



Agrotis radians Guen. [Syn. Agrotis munda]. — The adult of this species 

 has brown fore-wings and hind-wings smoky white, and in this stage the 

 insect is harmless. The caterpillar (cutworm) is brown to smoky-black in 

 colour. 



A Cutworm of Seedling Maize (Agrotis radians). 



Pupa of Cutworm (Agrotis radians). 



Control of Cutworms. — For the control of cutworms both bran and Paris 

 green, and bran and arsenic have been used as mash baits. Especially good 

 results have been obtained by using baits made to the formulae below, 

 spread along the rows of seedling maize in handfuls, as a damp crumbly 

 mash, over 75 per cent, of the cutworms being killed in one night. 



Paris green, 1 lb. 

 Bran, 24 lb. 



Water, 3 quarts, with 6 oz. 

 treacle dissolved in it. 



Paris green, 1 lb. j 



Bran, 24 lb. ( 



Water, 3 quarts, with 3 oz. salt ( 



dissolved in it. ; 



It has been found that white arsenic when used at the same strength as 

 Paris green is much less attractive and effective ; this may be due to the fact 

 that the arsenic contains nearly twice as much arsenious acid as the other. 



The bait is made by mixing the bran and Paris green together while dry, 

 and then adding the salt water, 1 pint to every 4 lb. bran, which makes a 

 slightly damp crumhly mash. Too wet mash is lumpy and wasteful of 

 material when spreading the bait. With this bait in a sack, or kerosene tin 

 slung over the shoulder, a man can walk up and down the rows, throwing a 



