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Cooperative Extension Service |
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Agricultural
Experiment Station |
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Dale Bumpers College
Division Home |
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| Dustin Blakey County Extension Agent - Agriculture |
Jesse Bocksnick County Extension Agent - 4-H |
[Title slide - River Valley Gardening, When Armyworms Attack]
Is your yard overrun with tiny, green worms? Do Hollywood producers call you up and ask if they can film on location on your property? HI! This is Dustin Blakey, with the Sebastian County Cooperative Extension Service.
Chances are if your yard is teeming with hungry caterpillars right now, Fall Armyworms have made your yard their home.
There are several types of armyworms but the Fall Armyworm is the one causing mayhem in yards right now in the River Valley. These worms cannot survive Arkansas' winters and come from the Gulf Coast each year. When they arrive they make themselves at home devouring pastures and yards.
Fall armyworm larvae - the caterpillars - can be identified by a Y-shaped mark on their head. Armyworms are moths. As such, they are not particularly attractive as adults.
Since Fall Armyworm cannot overwinter here in Arkansas, there isn't much chance that the next generation will cause a problem as the temperature going to be getting much cooler.
Most chemicals are most effective with the earlier, smaller stages of growth than they are with the large, final instars of the caterpillar.
[Outside, standing.]
One of the best ways to check to see if you need to any type of control for armyworms is to measure a square foot area. There's lots of ways you can do that, but it's nice to have some kind of template to do that. [Holding up a square.]
This one is made with a PVC pipe, and that's a square foot inside there. You could also do it with some regular, old wire. And the way it's going to work is that you just randomly throw it out there on the lawn…and go out and actually count the grass, go through the whole area and you check to see how many worms you can find per sq. ft.
[Kneels]
So you'll get on your hands and knees. You actually go through with a fine-tooth comb and try to find armyworms.
When you're doing this, you want to take note of the size of any of them you happen to find. Medium-size ones are really ripe for control but when they're really large, it's usually too late to get much control. Usually you won't even find the small ones: there's just too much to look at in turf.
[Stands]
It's a good idea to do this in several locations. You don't want to pick just one spot. By random chance you may have picked a spot that's really bad or doesn't have many at all so it's better to go lots of places.
I might want to throw one here…do another one there. Check 3 or 4 spots in your yard just to make sure that you're really counting an accurate number and then take an average of all that.
[Inside]
In turf, a threshold of 1 worm per square foot is usually considered high enough damage potential that it warrants control. If you have more than that you probably weren't monitoring often enough. If you are in a panic because your entire yard is filled with big, fat worms, then chances are you too late to get any kind of control.
On farms and commercial operations, the decision whether to spray should be based on economics, but at home, money is seldom an object when it comes to pest control. Remember that this pest does not overwinter in Arkansas when you are deciding whether to spray.
If you do decide to spray, here are some tips to improve effectiveness in the landscape: First, Mow prior to spraying to improve control; second, Get good coverage and don't neglect the areas where the worms haven't made it to yet; third, don't water. It best to avoid any irrigation for a few days.
If you have any questions about fall armyworms or any other pests, contact your county Extension office.
[Title slide - For more information about armyworms contact Sebastian County Cooperative Extension Service dblakey@uaex.edu]
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