64 



THE ARMY WORM 



in 1S75. The last serious and widespread outbi^eak in New 

 England appears to have been that of iSSo. The present sea- 

 son the injury by army worms has been very general, not only 

 throughout New England, but in manv other eastern states. 



The Army Worm is generalh' destructive in seasons following 

 years of unusual drouth. It is seldom injurious in a given 



Fig. 3. Two Army Worms. From photograph by New York Experiment 



Station. 



locality for two successive summers, but it is worth while to 

 burn over — in autumn, winter, or spring — fields where it may 

 be present. 



THE LIFE OF THE ARMY WORM 



The story of the life of the individual army worm may be 

 briefly told. On some summer night there appears in the 

 meadow a good-sized light brown motli. Flying about she 

 finds a cluster of strong-growing grass. Into the folded leaves 

 of one or more of these she pushes a number of small whitish 

 eggs, gluing them in rows of a dozen or more. A week or ten 

 days later each egg hatches into a minute, whitish worm, that 

 nibbles at the grass blades at night, and in the daytime hides 

 beneath the grass from the rays of the sweltering sun. 



