Armyworm

“ At first a creeper and sharp-eyed inspector of hidden crannies, we afterwards discern no less in him, and upon the slightest provocation, a tyrant on the wing, thereby proving a general adaptability to and utility in his calling at all stages of the game—a constant warfare directed against the insect horde to which he devotes himself most assiduously at all times, and it is really astonishing the amount of the minute forms of insect life these little birds will consume. ”

“ THE NEXT WAR.
["As the result of a conference called by the War Office it has been decided to wage a war of annihilation against the warble-fly. It is hoped that by means of concerted action through the country this pestilent insect, so injurious to the hides of horses and cattle, may be completely stamped out."—Daily Paper.]
The warble-fly, the warble-fly
Is absolutely doomed to die. ”

“ It appears that immersion in water, of the body of the person afflicted with the parasite, sometimes has the effect of inducing the creature to leave his human quarters, since Dr Lorimer states “that many people belonging to the bazaars in the vicinity of the lines, affected with the parasite, come, for the express purpose of extracting the worm, to the same tank where the men of the regiment bathe. The people so infested swim about in the water, with the worm hanging loose, drawing the limb quickly backwards and forwards, and from side to side, until the expulsion is affected.” ”

“ Nothing stops them in their progress short of death, and, on account of their vast myriads, the numbers that can be killed form but an insignificant proportion of the whole army. A stream of these insects, a mile or more in width, will pass over a country, and scarcely anything short of a river will stop them. Trenches are soon filled up with their bodies, and those in the rear march over the carcasses of their dead comrades. Sometimes the trenches have been filled with fire, but to no purpose, as the fire is soon put out by the locusts that come [150] crowding upon it. ”

“ He is tied to a tree which is in the path of this bashikouay army. What a terrible death it must be!
THE ATTACK. Every animal that lives on the line of march where they have spread is pursued, and, though instinct seems to indicate the forthcoming danger, many are caught. In an incredibly short space of time the mouse, the insect, and many small animals are overwhelmed, killed, eaten, and their bare skeletons only remain. If they ever get into a fowl-house, it is all over with the fowls. The insects seem to be the greatest sufferers. ”

“ In like manner, the army worm may be defeated by burning up her eggs with the grass-stalks in which they are deposited. Or we may enlist in our service the natural enemies of the various insect-pests, such as birds, toads, snakes. But their greatest foes are "those of their own household," predaceous or cannibal and parasitic insects. The study of the habits of these insect allies and insect enemies of the husbandman is the occupation of the practical entomologist. ”

“ On another occasion a patrol which was attacked by a large swarm was only saved by the savoir faire of its commander, who ordered his men each to ward off the rush of the hungry insects with a ration biscuit held out to them at arm's length. In their impetuous ferocity the creatures blindly snapped at the biscuits, with the result foreseen by the experienced leader; the swarm, with every appearance of complete demoralisation, broke and fled, several being weakened by the fracture of their mandibles and falling an easy prey to the bayonets of the exultant patrol. ”

“ When the scouts discover a wasp's nest in a tree, a strong force is sent out from the main army, the nest is pulled to pieces, and all the larvæ in the nest are carried by the carrier-columns to the rear of the army, while the wasps fly around defenseless against the invading multitudes. Or, if the nest of any other species of ant is found, a similarly strong force is sent out, or even the whole army may be deflected toward it, when with the utmost energy the innumerable insects set to work to sink shafts and dig mines till the whole nest is rifled of its contents. ”

“ Flies, Moths, Grubs, and other insects attacked and routed our centre. Prince Humble-Bee calculated on the Rhinoceros-Beetles attacking his heavy troops, compelling them to traverse the field, separating the two armies; but the Beetle, who had been apprised of the plan of campaign by a deserter, commanded his troops to close their ranks and their wings, thus to await the enemy’s shock.
The colours floated in the wind, the sun shone brightly on the insects ranged in battle array, while martial music fired our foes with desperate resolve. ”

“ In ‘The Minor Horrors of War,’ we rather neglected the Navy—the senior Service, and till now the more dominant of our two magnificent forces—partly because it is less interfered with by insect pests than is the sister Service, though the common pests of our poor humanity—the flea, the louse, the bug—are, like the poor, ‘always with us.’ Like aeroplanes, insects have captured the air; like motors, they have made a respectable show on land ”

“ Mushrooms, cabbages, bees, wasps, crickets. Every creeping and crawling thing that did not get aloft before the black tide reached it was lost, torn to bits by tiny mandibles. Even the hunting spiders and tarantulas fell before the host of insects, having killed many in their final struggles, but overwhelmed by sheer numbers. And the wounded and dying army ants made food for their sound comrades.
There is no mercy among insects. ”

“ The swarm, whose life cycle Bram had admitted he did not understand, had just moulted!
It had moulted because the bodies, gorged with food, bad grown too large for the shells. In time, if left alone, the monsters would grow larger shells, become invincible again. But just now they were defenseless as new-born babes—and knew it.
Deep underneath, the empty shells they had burrowed into the ground. Everywhere at the bottom of the deep trenches were the naked, bestial creatures, waving helpless tentacles and squirming over one another as they strove to find shelter and security. ”

“ They swarmed down in innumerable hordes upon the fields, destroying the growing crops as they advanced, devouring all before them, leaving the land a desert in their track. The people scarcely knew how to withstand the assault of this new foe; they drove the marauders into trenches there to be drowned or burned; men, women and every child that could swing a stick, were called to the ranks in this insect war ”

“ The robin and its sister thrushes and the numerous sparrows attend to the surface of the earth, and aquatic birds extensively destroy those insects whose development takes place either in or on the water.
Not the least among the birds that assist man in his warfare upon insect pests are our beautiful and active warblers that frequent the foliage of tree and shrubs patiently gathering their insect food. ”

“ Another point to consider is that thorough cultivation will destroy many pupæ that are lying underground, and which would otherwise give rise to another generation of moths.
“Army-worms.”—​These caterpillars are similar in their appearance and general habits to the cut-worms, but differ in their method of attack. When present in numbers, they move through a crop—​especially cereals—​eating as they go, and leaving nothing but devastation in their wake, much as does an invading army on the march. They are not of so much interest to the horticulturist as to the farmer. ”

“ In addition to the ever-present insect life associated with active service and the trenches, there were centipedes, scorpions, tarantula spiders and small snakes, which invaded our blankets. Chameleons were also plentiful and were kept as pets, though we never committed the atrocity attributed to a man in a Scottish Division on the Palestine Front who placed a pet chameleon on his tartan kilt and wondered why the poor little beggar suddenly died. ”

“ If prey is found in sufficiently small quantities for them to manage alone, it is immediately seized and carried to the main column, but, if the amount is too large for the scouts themselves to deal with, messengers are sent back to the main column, whence there is immediately dispatched a detachment large enough to cope with the requirements. Insects or other prey which, when killed, are too large for single ants to carry, are torn in pieces, and the pieces conveyed back to the main army by different individuals. ”

“ In order to prevent the worm from changing into a chafer, it is advisable to intersect the fields with ditches: as this insect is continually creeping about, it penetrates through the sides of those trenches, falls into the water which they generally contain, and cannot extricate itself from that situation; but it is necessary to collect the worms every day ”

“ He runs up the trunk, digging into the bark for insects and insects' eggs. Almost seventy-five per cent of his food is made up of insects.
Perhaps you have read of the army worm and of the harm it does to grass and grain. In a single night a green field attacked by this pest is made brown and bare. In 1896 the damage done in Massachusetts by this worm was estimated at $200,000. As soon as the birds discover that the army worm is at work, they come flocking from long distances. No farmer could summon helpers so promptly. ”

“ It has been repeatedly observed in the course of my narrative, that an inconceivable 160 number of birds and beasts of prey, especially the former, follow an Abyssinian army pace by pace, from the first day of its march till its return, increasing always in prodigious proportion the more it advances into the country. An army there leaves nothing living behind, not the vestige of habitation, but the fire and the sword reduces everything to a wilderness and solitude. ”

“ A slow-worm’s progression is truly marvellous. In this little creature one can detect no action of the ribs; they are too fine and too close. Its scaly armour, moreover, is smooth and firm; and as for ventral scutæ to ‘afford hold,’ it has none. Yet with ease it draws itself over that polished rim, as it draws itself up and over your finger, when suspended by the mere tip of its tail. ”

“ The rufescent ant, in fact, is a purely military caste, which has devoted itself entirely to the pursuit of arms, leaving every other form of activity to its slaves and dependents. Officers of the old school will be glad to learn that this military insect is dressed, if not in scarlet, at any rate in very decent red, and that it refuses to be bothered in any way with questions of transport or commissariat. ”

“ But now, worse than the bombs, the field-guns' shells, or those roaring, rending high-explosives, came the flies. A fortnight after the landing they had been a nuisance; at the end of the third week, bred in the horse and mule lines, they became an unbearable plague. The food on one's plate was covered with them, they crawled over it; they crawled over hands and faces; rest during the day was almost impossible. It was horrid to see a man asleep, with his lips, nostrils, and eyelids hidden in a dense mass of them, clinging there and sucking the moisture. ”

“ Two or three of these huge death beetles which ceaselessly hum [21] past have smashed themselves near them against the stones and have sprinkled them with their fragments; the Germans do not take the trouble to shoot at a single passerby like myself, but a group, and especially a litter, is irresistible for them. Of the two who are streaming with blood, one is, perhaps, not much the worse, but the other has an ear torn off, and hanging only by a shred of skin. ”

“ Associated insects have thus acquired many remarkable structures, which are of little or no service to the individual, such as the pollen-collecting apparatus, or the sting of the worker-bee, or the great jaws of soldier-ants. With the higher social animals, I am not aware that any structure has been modified solely for the good of the community, though some are of secondary service to it. For instance, the horns of ruminants and the great canine teeth of baboons appear to have been acquired by the males as weapons for sexual strife, but they are used in defence of the herd or troop. ”

“ Some insects secrete a gas which is stored in a sack at the posterior end of the body, and shot forth with an explosion in case that danger threatens thus by noise and smoke it startles its enemy, which beats a retreat. I have heard the little bombardier beetle at such times, even at considerable distances. The frightful reports about the terrible horn of the tomato-worm larva are mere nonsense. A more harmless animal does not exist. ”

“ When they came to the battlefield the moving band spread out, and as the thousands upon thousands of ants rolled up, the whole piece of ground was a moving mass of ants and bunches of struggling worms. The fight was over in a very few minutes, as the worms were bitten in pieces by the sharp pincer-like mouths of the driver ants. The few worms who survived squirmed away and buried themselves out of sight. ”

“ Tommy's first act was to call out the fire companies, and have the beetles' trenches saturated with petrol from the fire hoses. Then incendiary bullets, shot from guns from a safe distance, quickly converted them into blazing infernos.
But even so only a tithe of the beetle army had been destroyed. Two hundred planes had already been rushed from New Zealand, and their aviators went up and scoured the country far and wide. Everywhere they found trenches, and, where the soil was stony, millions of the beetles clustered helplessly beneath great mounds of discarded shells. ”