8 
bulletin 98. 
REMEDIES. 
If the worms are numerous enough to attract any attention 
at all late in the summer or in the fall, the beet ground should be 
plowed deeply and as soon as possible after the beets are gathered, 
for the purpose of burying the worms so that the moths will not 
be able to escape the following spring. If it is impossible to plow 
in the fall, then the surface of the ground should be thoroughly 
harrowed or disced for the purpose of crushing the worms and 
and bringing the tubes to the surface where freezing and thawing 
and the attacks of birds may destroy a large proportion of the 
worms. 
On Feb. 28, 1905, Mr. S. A. Johnson visited a beet field near 
Ft. Collins that was plowed last fall and collected 94 of the silken 
tubes on the surface and 76 beneath the surface. The 94 tubes 
from the surface contained 4 living and 4 dead worms and there 
were 86 tubes that were empty. The last all had openings in 
them, some at the end but most of them had been torn open along 
the side, probably by birds. Riley and Howard in “Insect Fife,” 
Yol. 5, P. 321, report Mr. Walter Maxwell, of Schuyler, Nebraska 
as stating that cocoons that were exposed by repeated harrowings 
were largely emptied by birds and he mentions particularly mead¬ 
ow larks and quails. 
The 76 tubes that Mr. Johnson dug from beneath the surface 
contained 52 living worms, 13 dead worms and 11 were empty. 
If we suppose that moths or parasites were hatched from the 11 
empty tubes last fall, we should have an indication that about 20 
per cent of the worms were killed from mechanical injuries from 
fall plowing, and a considerable additional number were killed as 
the result of exposure upon the surface. Those that were deeply 
covered, it is believed will never find their way out. 
If plowing was neglected in the fall, the next best tiling will 
will be to plow as soon as possible after the frost is out of the 
ground in the spring. After plowing the ground should be thor¬ 
oughly pulverized and leveled so as to fill in with fine dirt be¬ 
tween the clods and prevent the escape of the moths. 
It is doubtful if anything farther can be done for this insect 
before the worms appear upon the beets except to keep the beet 
fields and surrounding territory as clean as possible of weeds that 
are attractive to the moths for the deposition of their eggs. 
POISONING THE WORMS. 
The worms accomplish their work of destruction so quickly 
that it is important that the beet grower should be prepared to 
check the injuries as soon as they are seen. In order to do this it 
will be necessary to be on the look out for the moths which will 
always appear in the beet fields from one to two weeks before the 
