54 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETABLES 



attack nearly any form of vegetation, feeding on all parts of 

 plants when it occurs in numbers. It is a climbing cutworm, 

 and when exceptionally abundant, assumes the army worm 

 habit. Its progenitor is a large moth (fig. 29, a) with pale, 

 grayish-brown fore-wings tinged with reddish and shaded with 



Fig. 29.— Variegated cutworm (Peridroma saucia). a. Moth; 

 . b, larva, lateral view; c, same coiled up; d, dark form, dorsal 

 view. (After Howard, U. S. Depi. Agr.) 



darker brown. There is considerable variability in markings, 

 which are often suffused. The same holds of the cutworm itself 

 (fig. 29, c, d). At maturity this cutworm measures about one 

 and three-fourths inches. The variegated cutworm is cosmo- 

 politan in the broadest sense of the word, and is injurious 

 throughout practically all arable regions. 



METHODS OF CONTROL 



Poisoned baits are the standard remedies against cutworms. 

 To be effective they should be applied as soon as attack is 

 noticed and are particularly valuable in cases where the direct 

 application of poisons is impossible owing to the danger of 

 poisoning persons or stock when it is used for food. There are 

 two kinds of bait — fresh vegetable and bran mash. 



Vegetable bait. — Vegetable bait may be prepared by spraying 



