ARMY WORM AND CUTWORM OUTBREAKS 
349 
Floris in Davis county. The moths were so numerous as they 
visited the flowers of a large apricot tree in the early evening 
as to practically cover the tree. They did not appear there again, 
however. The early summer of 1920 brought no reports of Army 
worm damage but during the last weeks of July it became apparent 
that northwestern Iowa was suffering heavily from Army worm 
attacks. This outbreak also touched the northeast corner of the 
state and extended on north into Minnesota. Prompt work on 
the part of the State Entomologist and the county agents brought 
the worms in many cases under control and greatly reduced the 
loss. 
The oats crop suffered most heavily, the damage resulting from 
the worms climbing into the panicles and cutting off the spikelets 
until the ground was covered with loose oats. Reports of the 
loss of from five to ten bushels of grain to the acre were quite 
common and in some fields the loss was so nearly complete that 
the entire acreage was left uncut. Some farmers saved their 
grain by cutting it greener than they would otherwise have done. 
A farmer living in Pocahontas county told of seeing three binders 
working on Sunday in a very green piece of oats. He could not 
guess the reason until the wheels of his car began to skid from 
running on Army worms crossing the road. Low lying and rank 
growing oat fields suffered most. The early oats escaped by rip- 
ening ahead of the worms. Had the worms appeared a week or 
ten days earlier the loss of the oats crop would have been close 
to total in many areas. 
From the oats the worms frequently went to the corn, which 
in most cases suffered but light damage due to its size and the 
fact that the worms were approaching maturity. In some fields, 
however, the leaves were stripped up to the ears* and the silk 
cut off short from the younger ones. In such cases the worms 
could be found in the tips of the ears eating the growing silk, 
thus preventing its reaching a length to warrant pollination. 
Some timothy meadows suffered. In mixed meadows the clover 
would be left standing even though the timothy and other grasses 
vjere cut tight to the ground. A patch of Soudan grass was 
seen where the side next to the damaged oat field was badly eaten, 
with many worms and pupae to be found along the rows. 
Some worms were observed to be dying of fungus troubles, 
while many white bunches of braconid cocoons, each telling of the 
wreck of an Army worm, could be found in the infested fields. 
Among the living worms in almost any field could be found 
