Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 July 1881 — The Army Worm. [ARTICLE]

The Army Worm.

The army worms are reported as doing a great amount of damage in various parts of the county. So far as any accurate accounts have been received, their ravages seem to have been confined to the more southern and western parts of the county. The principal damage seems to have been inflicted upon the oat crop, a number of fields of which have been totally destroyed. These insects travel in vast numbers, and having once attacked a field of grain, they require but a short time to complete its destruction. The general opinion of those familiar with the habits of army worms seem to be that the insects will not do much further damage this season, as they usually disappear about this time of year. The worms are all sizes from one-fourth inch to one and a half inches in length. We have heard of one man who endeavored to arrest the march of a column of the worms By plowing, a deep furrow along the side of a field of grain they were marching into. The result was that the furrow was soon filled with worms to the depths of throe inches. A heavy log was then drawn by a horse through the furrow and the worms killed.

Since the above was put in type many new accounts have reached us regarding the ravages of the army worms, from wlifhh it appears that the extent of thek> damage is. much greater than wasat first supposed. One gentleman informs us that there is not an acre of oats worth harvesting between Goodland and Remington. On Col. Streignt’s farm alone five hundred acres have been destroyed. We advise fanners whoso fields are threatened by an invasion of the worms to try the ditch remedy in something the same manner as did the man mentioned in a previous paragraph. A deep furrow should be plowed along the field threatened, at right angles to the line in which the worms are moving. The sides of the furrow should be cut out struiglit with a spade, and In the bottom, at distances of every rod or two, square holes as wide as the ditch should be dug to a depth of a foot or more. The worms will fall into the. ditch, and being unable to ascend the bides ofthe ditch soon, work their way along until they fall into the holes before mentioned, where fearful vengeance may be wroaked upon them at leisure. -