THE MOTH 



The moths vary greatly in color. Some (Plate One, fig. 8a) are brownish 

 gray; others (Plate One, fig. 8b) are fox red above and somewhat lighter below. 

 The front wings are crossed by a few fine lines and there are two characteristic 

 subcircular markings placed lengthwise on the middle of the front part of each. 

 The main part of the body is tufted heavily with hair. The wings expand about 

 an inch and a half. The females lay from one hundred to two hundred eggs each. 

 The males fly well and often. 



Treatment 



FLOODING 



The flooding late in May advocated for control of the gypsy moth will destroy 

 this pest if the winter water has been let off in April; and flooding for ten hours 

 about June 10 checks it anyway. 



SPRAYING OR DUSTING 



A spray of 6 pounds of dry lead arsenate or 6 pounds of cryolite in 100 gallons 

 of water, 300 gallons to the acre, is effective if applied before the worms are half 

 grown. Dusting with 50 pounds of cryolite per acre is also advocated. 



BAITING — See page 26. 



Spotted Cutworm 2 6 



For many years this insect has been known to injure small areas of bog on 

 Cape Cod occasionally, but it has not been reported as a cranberry pest elsewhere. 

 There was a marked outbreak in 1923, two hundred acres or more of bog in 

 various parts of the Cape being so badly infested as to lose most of the 

 prospective crop, and a few of the worms and scattering marks of their work 

 being found on most bogs. 



Distribution and Food Plants 



The spotted cutworm was brought into this country from Eurasia many 

 years ago and now ranges from New England and Canada to Virginia, southern 

 Missouri, Arizona, and the Pacific coast of Oregon and Washington. 



It is a very pernicious pest of vegetable and forage crops. The following are 

 some of its food plants: apple, beet, blueberry, cabbage, carrot, celery, chicory, 

 chickweed, clover, corn, cranberry, currant, ferns, goldenrod, grass, Helianthus, 

 lettuce, Lobelia, maple, onion, pear, rhubarb, spinach, strawberry, sweet fern, 

 tobacco, tomato, violet, and wheat. 



Character of hijury 

 In 1923 this insect did much harm on a few acres of one bog bared of its 

 winter flood in April. With this exception, it has been known to attack severely 

 only bogs drained of the winter water between May 26 and June 8. It generally 

 works more on Howes vines than on Early Black. The worms work almost 

 entirely at night. They nip off the blossom buds, flowers, and small berries, 

 severing the stem near where it joins the ovary (fig. 26), and are most active 

 during the blooming. They also excavate partly grown berries (fig. 27) much as 

 katydids do, and cut off many leaves by severing the petiole, apparently eating 

 little of the tissue. The fallen green leaves are seen first in and along the bog ditches 

 and later everywhere under much infested vines. Severe infestations sometimes 

 so defoliate small areas that the bare uprights give the vines a brown tinge at a 

 distance. 



2* Amathes c-nigrum (L.). 



[28} 



