46 



THE CONTROL OF CUTWORMS/ 



Among the many species of cutworms the variegated cutworm 

 (Peridroma saucia Huebn.) is found everywhere. It has little choice 

 as regards the quality of its food, — anything succulent, whether the 

 leaves, buds, flowers, fruits, stalks, tubers or roots of plants of 

 the garden, field or greenhouse, serving the larvffi as a means of 

 sustenance. The cutworm of one species or another is so well known 

 as to need no description. In Massachusetts, at least, its excessive 

 depredations of 1911, owing to the dry weather, have not been for- 

 gotten. Fortunately, wet seasons check the development of these 

 insects, and parasites, predaceous beetles, birds and poultry prey 

 upon them. 



Among artificial methods of control poisoned bait is a standard 

 remedy. To be effective it should be applied as soon as attack is 

 noticed. It is particularly valuable in cases where the direct appli- 

 cation of poisons to a plant 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. 

 A good way of preparing a vegetable bait is to spray a patch of 

 clover, pigweed or some useless succulent plant that grows by the 

 roadside or in fence corners, with Paris green, 1 pound to 150 gal- 

 lons of water; mow it close to the g^round, and place it while fresh 

 in small heaps about the infested plants, at intervals of a few feet. 

 The later in the day that this can be done the better, as the material 

 keeps fresh longer and the cutworms feed almost exclusively at night. 

 Owing to the wilting of this bait, pnrticularly in dry, sunny weather, 

 it is advisable to cover each heap with a chip, shingle or bit of bark, 

 for its protection against the sun's rays. 



Bran Mash. 

 What is known as bran mash, or bran-arsenic mash, is equal in 

 value to a fresh vegetable bait, and, according to some, still more 

 efficacious. Paris green, arsenoid, white arsenic, or in fact any 

 arsenical compound, can be used for poisoning this bait, and in its 

 preparation, on account of the weight of the poison and the fact 



» Abstract from Bulletin No. 29, new series, Division of Entomology, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, by F. H. Chittenden. Abstract by H. Linwood White, First 

 Clerk. 



