172 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



very small scale, other methods are more effective. Of the baits 

 used, clover is the favorite. A goodly pile of clover should be cut, 

 and while it is still fresh and green, it should be wet down with paris- 

 green and water, using about half a pound of poison to a barrel of 

 water, then, late in the afternoon, so that it will keep fresh as long 

 as possible, twist bunches of this wetted clover in wads, more or less 

 compact, and throw out over the field at short intervals. If the field 

 to be protected be near a field in sod, then place an extra amount on 

 the threatened side. The cut-worms love clover and oftentimes they 

 will hide under such wads of fresh green food in the morning after 

 a night's travel, eating a little of the poisoned food before hiding 

 away. Poisoned pieces of turnips will do if clover is not to be had. 



Poisoned bran, sweetened with a little molasses and made into 

 moist balls the size of a plum, has been recommended, and Mr. Sir- 

 rene, of the New York State Experiment Station, recommends dry 

 bran mixed with dry paris-green, sowed on the surface of the soil 

 by means of a hand drill. In any case do not use such baits of bran 

 unless stock and poultry are excluded or when partridge and quail 

 are likely to get it, and do not expect to find the dead worms in 

 the morning unless you are willing to sift the top soil for some dis- 

 tance about each bait, for the pests always bury themselves before 

 dying. The only way to judge of the death of the larva? is by the 

 cessation of their work. 



The habit of passing the winter in a partially grown condition 

 or in the egg state, at once suggests fall plowing as a palliative meas- 

 ure, unless it be undesirable for cultural reasons. 



The Sod Web-Worms, or Root Web-Worms. Every observer of 

 insect life has noticed, as he walks through grass on lawns or mead- 

 ows in summer, multitudes of small white or grayish moths rising 

 before him, flying a short distance, and then lighting to rest on the 

 grass, head downward, with the body parallel to the blade. These 

 moths, or millers, if examined when at rest, are seen to have the 

 wings folded around the body in a way to give them a cylindrical 

 form instead of the usual triangular one of ordinary moths. These 

 are the parent insects of small, slightly bristly, reddish caterpillars 

 which live abundantly in the turf, hidden away by day in a silk- 

 lined burrow among the roots of the grass, but becoming active at 

 night, when they feed especially upon the underground part of the 

 stem of the plant, sometimes also upon its roots or blades. 



These caterpillars average about half an inch in length when 

 full grown, are pinkish red or brownish, and covered with rows of 

 comparatively smooth dark spots, from the center of each of which 

 springs a rather coarse hair. They differ from cutworms in their 

 habit of quickly wriggling away when picked up or disturbed, and 

 making active efforts to escape. Cutworms, on the other hand, are 

 sluggish, and take disturbance quietly, simply curling up and taking 

 their chances. 



Not infrequently the web-worms become so abundant as to cause 

 brown or deadened spots in a lawn or meadow, sometimes, indeed, 

 in seasons unfavorable to the growth of grass, deadening the turf 



