Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs cereals specialist Peter Johnson says there are reports of the bugs at the South end of Huron County and he expects as the season progresses they will head further north.
Johnson says the army worm always target the best fields first.
The worms fly in from the US with thunderstorm patterns and weather systems out of Georgia and Texas and Johnson says they can actually sense which fields are the most lush and greenest.
He says their first course of action to combat these worms is to go out and scout for the number of army worms that are in the field.
He says the army worms can do enough damage that the only choice they have is to spray them with insecticide.
Johnson says they have anticipated their could be a problem for probably a month and they have been recommending that growers scout their crops for the past two weeks
He adds they have known that the army worms have been at high levels since last week.
Johnson says they are very similar to tent caterpillars which destroy trees by causing the them to defoliate.
He says the army worm essentially eat all the leaves of the wheat crop, and with no leaves on the wheat crop you don’t have any tissue to photosynthesize to feed the grain.
He adds when you don’t have any photosynthate to feed the grain —— that has a significant negative impact on yield and when that drops so does the farmers profitability.
