When armyworms invades the lawn, the damages it can done to your turf will easily multiply.
It got it's name is named because it eats everything in an area. Even at the stage of caterpillar, the armyworms feed on the plants in daytime and night time.
Often, the damage done is already severe even before they were discovered. Once the food?such as the grasses such as Bermuda, St. Augustine, and Zoysia?is exhausted, it moves as an army into another place where plants are fresh and healthy.
Because the worms cannot survive winter, they migrate from the South, where large moth fly in number or are blown away by southerly winds. Their infestations begin early in June and July or when the weather and food conditions are to their favor.
In daytime, the armyworms loiter under vegetation, in soil cracks or loose soil. In the night, the moths lay eggs in folded leaves or under leaf sheaths of small grain plants and other moist grasses. The eggs resemble small white beads arranged in masses or rows. Between 8 and 10 days, the eggs hatch into larvae which need to feed from 3 to 4 weeks, after which, they burrow into the soil to make small cells and pupate. Two weeks from pupation, moths emerge to look for mates and lay eggs for the next generation.
The larvae have dull yellow to gray shades with stripes running down their body.
When they mature, their length can reach up to 2 inches, and sport a pale brown color. Their wings, which have white spots near the center, can spread up to 2 inches.
They wreak havoc particularly in North Dakota, feeding on grain crops, alfalfa, beans, clover, flax, millet and sugar beets. Known for their monikers such as rice armyworm, paddy armyworm, and rice-cutting caterpillar, they favor both dry land and wetland fields.
The upper parts of the plants are where larvae get their source for food on cloudy and nighttime. If they are on dryland fields, pupation happens in the soil, or at the base of the rice plants. If they wreak havoc on wetlands, the larvae pupate on grassy areas along the field borders.
They grow well in areas where there are many hosts like plants and grasses, and in periods of drought following heavy rains. There are many ways to recognize their presence. First, when leaf tips or leaf margins are fed-upon.
Second, rice panicles are cut off from their base. Third, when there is removal of whole leaves and plants. Fourth, when the whole leaves are fed-upon with only the midribs are left. Finally, when stems have cuts or when they are cut off from the plant base.
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