Army worms making rare appearance

The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Cattle farmer Terrill Lane realized something was wrong when he saw the army worms in his hayfields -- three or four on every square foot of his pasture.

Army worm infestations are virtually unknown in Brookfield, 95 miles northeast of Kansas City.

Things got worse last week, when the worm population in some places had shot up to 15 or 20 worms per square foot and had stripped nearly bare some of his fields.

"That's for hay that we would normally bale for winter feed," he said. "I don't know if it's to the point where people will have to sell their livestock, but that's possible. I'm 39 years old and I've never seen it."

Army worms, a fairly routine agricultural scourge of southern Missouri, have shown up in massive numbers in the northern part of the state in the last two weeks.

State entomologist Wayne Bailey estimates the pests are present on 760,000 acres of grass and hay pasture in north-central and northeast Missouri. Bailey said the largest concentrations of worms appear to be in Sullivan, Linn, Putnam, Randolph, Schuyler and Mercer counties.

He said the state Department of Agriculture has put out a request for suppliers of the anti-worm insecticide Tracer and has asked the Environmental Protection Agency for approval to use it on grass pastures. It's listed for use on other types of crops.

About an inch and a half in length, the worms have voracious appetites and can move in large numbers across a field, devouring leaves and seed heads as they go. They are difficult to detect: They move at night and hide amid ground cover during the day.

Bailey said he believes a combination of favorable weather conditions, including a lack of rain when the worms were young and vulnerable, has led to the exploding population.

Chris Zumbrunnen, a state extension livestock specialist, said he began getting calls about army worms May 28.

"I've been in pastures that are total losses," he said. "I've been in fields on Sunday that didn't look too bad and by Tuesday they were eaten."

He said he has been warning farmers who may not think they have a problem to start scouting their fields, trying to catch the pests early.

"When you see four worms per square foot, you need to spray," he said. "When you see 20 worms per square foot, that's enough to give you the willies."

Lane said he has begun to spray infested fields and bale up the damaged hay, hoping it's still good enough to use for his cattle. If not, he said, he may have to buy hay in the winter or bring the cattle into the barn to feed them grain, which is expensive.

"This (year's crop) is probably one of the best quality of grass and quantity of grass in many years," he said. "Now we have to deal with army worms."