(Envr) Army Worms

[scandi]

Up here in Northern Minnesota we are bombarded with army worms...yuk...There are millions of them and they are stripping the trees of their leaves in very short order. They are all over the roads....the buildings....sidewalks and just about everywhere. They even hang off from the edge of the buildings and let themselves down by a web similar to a spiders web. Is anyone else experiencing these gross looking worms?

 

[Taz]

Sandra...here in Florida we had a field of millit destroyed about 4 years ago. Before it was gone, the black birds swooped in here by the thousands and ate the worms. When they left, the worms started multiplying again and this time hubby sprayed the field with herbacide. We grow the millet for the wild dove (and my two parrots) and he didn't want to put a poison on it. But the worms didn't leave much and they had started on our lawn. He sprayed some kind of stuff there to kill them. Haven't seen them since, but that was an experience to see millions of them eating a 15 inch high plant to the roots in a matter of hours.
Taz

 

[RKBA]

Never heard of such a thing, and I thought maybe you were just "joking" till I did a web search on them. Apparently they're common world wide, because in <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200103280518.html">Africa</a> they can be as many as 500 to 1,000 worms per square meter! There's a good article on their infestation in Missouri at http://outreach.missouri.edu/butler/pests.htm#Armyworms%20in%20Turf Don't they have any natural enemies?

Oops, Sorry didn't realize the pictures would become huge without the width/height attributes. I'll try again...

One more time...

<img border="0" src="http://outreach.missouri.edu/butler/pests.7.jpg" width="171" height="118"><img border="0" src="http://outreach.missouri.edu/butler/pests.8.jpg" width="180" height="120"><img border="0" src="http://outreach.missouri.edu/butler/pests.9.jpg" width="180" height="120">

P.S.

Taz, your husband should have read the post by bigwavedave over at <a href="http://www.gunsnet.net/forums/tb2k/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000356">[OT] How Does Your Garden Grow?</a>

[ 06-01-2001: Message edited by: Ron ]

 

[Jesse]

Sure hope they're herbivors! Army ANTS are not! - Jesse.

 

[jay]

NorthWest Montana here. Hope this is not another bad year for the army worms. Have seen some years when while driving along on the road you can see the webs going from tree to tree in the forest. So far have had to lop off about 6 branches of different plum trees that were loaded with the worms. Then burn the branches. Sprayed earlier, but today will spray with diazinon.