BEET WORMS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 5 
During the last week of June of the past year (1904) word 
came from Mr. P. K. Blinn, field agent of the Experiment Station, 
and Mr. W. K. Winterhalter, agriculturist of the American Beet 
Sugar Co. at Rocky Ford, stating that a worm was troubling the 
beets in the Arkansas Valley. Mr. S. A. Johnson of this depart¬ 
ment was sent to investigate the matter. Mr. Johnson did not 
find the injuries very severe except in small areas in a few fields, 
and several patches had already been sprayed with Paris green or 
arsenite of lime in water Mr. Johnson concluded that the Paris 
green sprays had given best results, and especially where a second 
application had been made a few days after the first. A sample 
of the spraying outfits used, from a photo taken by Mr. Blinn, is 
shown at Plate II, Fig. 1. Plate II, Fig. 2, shows the work of 
the worms in one of the fields visited by Mr. Johnson at that time. 
The writer visited the same locality again Aug. 19th and was 
much assisted in his investigations by Mr. Winterhalter and Mr. 
Blinn. At this time the August brood of worms had about com¬ 
pleted their work of destruction which exceeded that of the July 
brood. 
The first complaint that came to the experiment station last 
summer was Aug. 13. On that date I went with Mr. C. M. Liggett 
to his ranch about 10 miles northeast of Ft. Collins and found the 
worms doing considerable damage. Occasional moths were still 
in the field. Mr. Fred Wright, agriculturist for the Ft. Collins 
factory, told me that the moths were abundant in Mr. Liggett’s 
field ten days before. A week later many other fields were 
seriously attacked. The worms continued to increase and devas¬ 
tate other fields for fully two weeks, but they had nearly disap¬ 
peared in Mr. Liggett’s field on Aug. 22. 
Mr. Timothy, agriculturist for the Greeley sugar factory, told 
me that he first noticed the worms at Sterling August 3, and at 
Greeley August 10. The worst of the injuries were over at 
Greeley August 20. Mr. Johnson was at Sterling August 18 and 
noted that the injuries were practically over there at that date. 
He also reported immense flocks of sparrows feeding upon the 
worms. 
FOOD PLANTS. 
I have noticed the worms feeding freely upon beets, cabbages, 
onions, pigweed (Chenopodium album), Russian thistle and alfalfa. 
They will probably feed upon many other plants in case of an 
emergency. 
LOSSES. 
Growers have estimated their losses all the way from one to 
five tons per acre as the result of the injuries by the worms. 
