![]() ![]() Insecticides are needed to eliminate this foraging army but application must be made quickly to save lawns and crops. They work below the surface, chewing through roots and killing plants quickly as they suck up nutrients. Once hatched, fall armyworms can turn lawns and crops from green to brown with yellow stripes in less than 48 hours. The resulting caterpillars have a “Y” shape on the back of their heads and three stripes running down their bodies, reports Emily DeLetter of the Cincinnati Inquirer. The eggs hatch in about five to seven days. They also can put them on strips of grass and light posts. “They can get into the jet stream and move vast distances, then drop down to find suitable host plants.”įemale moths typically lay up to 500 eggs on leaves of trees and plants overhanging grass. “The adults of these moths have been known to travel 500 miles, even more, in 24 hours,” according to an alert on Buckeye Yard & Garden onLine, posted by Ohio State University's Extension Nursery, Landscape and Turf team. Before fall armyworms became caterpillars, summer storm fronts blew moths far and wide so they could lay eggs in new, more fertile areas. One of the reasons it is so invasive this time has to do with weather patterns. “In my 40 years, I have never seen the problem as widespread as it is this year.” “This year is like a perfect storm,” Rick Brandenburg, a North Carolina State University entomologist, tells USA Today. Fall armyworms are an annual problem, though there can be a large concentration of these bug battalions every three to five years. ![]() The caterpillar infestation is attacking at an “unprecedented” level, Revek says, destroying lawns across the Northeast, Midwest, South and Southwest. “They just lay waste to everything in their path, moving through just like an army on the move.” “They can easily munch their way through whatever, whether it’s a lawn or a park or a golf course,” Eric Rebek, an Oklahoma State University entomologist, tells Christine Fernando of USA Today. Fall armyworms are on the march, turning lawns-as well as farm crops-into battlefields of devastation at an “unprecedented” scale. It’s a sad scene for many homeowners across the country: yards of green grass go brown in just a matter of hours. ![]()
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