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During the fall of 1899 the fall army worm, Laphygma frugiperda, 
committed serious depredations in southern Ohio, especially in Wash- 
ington, Gallia, and Scioto counties. During March of the present 
year complaints came from the same section of the State, setting forth 
the continued ravages of this pest. As this seemed improbable, an 
assistant was sent to investigate the matter. That there was being 
considerable injury done in fields of young wheat there appeared to 
be no doubt, and an ample supply of the depredators were secured, 
but, instead of the supposed ZL. frugiperda, the pest proved to be no 
other than the spotted cutworm, Noctua c-mgrum, the larve having 
evidently lived over in the fields, probably above ground. I clearly 
recollect finding the larve of this same species feeding on young 
wheat in the fields during a January thaw at Lafayette, Ind., a num- 
ber of years ago. 
Early in May of the present year there came complaints of the 
attack of cutworms on the extensive onion farms in Hardin County. 
A personal investigation of these complaints resulted in my observing 
two separate invasions, the depredators being Carnedes tessellata and 
C. insignata. 
The worms ranged in length from nearly three-fourths inch down- 
ward to about one-fourth inch in length. In one case they were mak- 
ing their way from a tract of ground which had been planted to corn 
last year and had been somewhat neglected and grown up to weeds, 
though there were almost none of these growing there at the time of 
my visit. The other outbreak had originated near where a large lot 
of potatoes had been pitted last fall and remained there over winter. 
Here, too, there was no vegetation on which the worms could have 
subsisted up to this time. The cutworms in each case would follow 
the rows of young onions, taking nearly every one as they went, in 
one case invading the field at the ends of the rows and in the other 
along one side. Larve broughé to the insectary fed on red clover, the 
adult moths appearing largely on June 16, but others continued to put 
in their appearance for several days. 
A mixture of wheat bran and arsenic, mixed into a dough with 
sweetened water and this placed under boards laid down in the midst 
of where the worms were at work, proved very effective and soon 
reduced their numbers. 
It is not often that the wheat wireworm is known to attack other 
grains. An instance, however, was brought to notice this spring 
where a wheat field that had been hopelessly ruined from the attacks 
of Hessian fly last fall had been plowed up this spring and planted 
with corn. May 28 the owner of the field, Mr. E. R. Emerich, of 
Greenville, Ohio, wrote me saying that the corn had been badly | 
injured by these worms, specimens of which accompanied his letter of 
complaint. | 
