21. Nehring said he's received isolated reports of what appear to be army worm moths, especially along the Illinois border. 22. Army worms also hit the Coastal Bend, but the farmers there were ready for them with new chemicals, Buehring said.23. The army worm , a hairless, dark-green caterpillar, eats corn, soybeans and sometimes the grass in lawns and on golf courses. 24. "That's why they're called army worms , " said Dennis Nehring, the University of Wisconsin Extension agricultural agent for Rock County. 25. Beet army worms ruined as much as 75 percent of the Rio Grande Valley crop in southern Texas earlier this year. 26. The weather pattern _ drought followed by late summer rains _ is similar to 1996, the year of another army worm invasion. 27. The beet army worm caterpillar _ a devastating pest of corn and cotton _ drools volicitin as it chews on a leaf. 28. In corn, for instance, a chemical signal summons a wasp that deposits eggs inside army worms that feed on the corn plant. 29. The voracious beet army worm has also made an appearance in the Coastal Bend and has recently shown up in the South Plains. 30. An intense drought was also cited, because it reduced the army worms 'natural food, prompting the critters to add more cotton to their menu.
