Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


they feed at night, but do not cut the plant off. Instead, they
strip it of its leaves, make channels on the surface of the stalk,
or mine the center. They construct a tube of silk just below
the surface of the ground and hide in this
during the day. This will distinguish them
from cutworms. Furthermore, they try to
escape when disturbed instead of curling up
and playing possum" like cutworms. The
adult insects are small, light-colored moths
which are always plentiful in sod land. When
at rest they roll their wings around their
bodies instead of laying them back more or
less flat like most
moths.
 Cont rol.-Se-
vere injury by these
caterpillars is con-
fined to land which
had considerable
grass during the iih
p r e c e di ng year.
Such land if intend-
ed for corn should
be broken as early
in the fall as prac-
ticable. Aside from
the matter of insect
control this is also 1
the best procedure s
from the cultural a ,
standpoint, a s i t
conserves the mois- FG. 83.-Injury to corn by bill-bugs. (From
 U. S. Bur. of Ent.)
ture during the dry
winter. Some relief can be obtained by dusting or spraying the
young plants with lead arsenate.
 BILL-BUGS (Sphenophorus spp.)
 Other insects that injure young corn are species of snout
beetles called "bill-bugs" (fig. 82). They feed on the young,
tender leaves, making parallel rows of holes, after the pattern
of sap-suckers on trees (fig. 83). This is done when the leaf
is rolled up in the bud and each row of holes is produced by a
single puncture.