212 FESTS OF G A ED EN AND FIELD CROPS 



silk inclosed within the husk. They are especially destructive to 

 sweet corn. 



On tomatoes they bore into the fruit and eat more or less of the 

 pulp within. 



Cotton is attacked at the time that the corn in southern fields is 



maturing, and therefore is no 

 longer suitable for food. The 

 worms eat into the bolls. 



Tobacco is subject to injury 

 at the same season, the larvae 

 eating into the buds and stalks, 

 though in Florida the plants 

 are attacked also early in the 

 season and the leaves muti- 

 FiG. 264.— Adult of the Corn Ear-worm. lated before they have un- 

 ^"^^^^^- folded. 



The adult is a yellowish or brownish moth, expanding a little more 

 than If inches. There are two broods in the North, and from four to 

 six in the South. The eggs of the first generation are laid on any avail- 

 able food plant, depending on the section of country. Succeeding 

 broods do the greater part of the injury. Winter is passed as a pupa 

 in the soil, in a peculiar burrow constructed by the larva, which de- 

 scends several inches, turns, and makes a gallery nearly to the surface 

 of the ground for the use of the moth in emerging, and then retires to 

 the bottom of the gallery to transform. 



One of the best means of control is fall plowing and cultivation, 

 so as to break up the exit galleries in the soil. 



Prevention of attack by the later broods often is difficult. Early 

 planted corn is more likely to escape injury. The same is true of 

 cotton. On cotton, arsenical poisons are used with good results, 

 usually applied dry. Strips of late corn planted among cotton after 

 the latter is under way will come into silk at the right time to divert 

 attack from the cotton. Cowpeas may be used in the same way. 



On tobacco buds an effective remedy consists in poisoning the 

 worms with a mixture of corn meal and dry arsenate of lead, using 1 



