Food plot destroyed
 

I posted this in another forum but thought I should post it here also just in case. It might save someone a lot of time, work and money.

A couple days ago I noticed that the clover in my ONLY food plot looked like it had been grazed down. It didn't concern me since I'd seen a lot of sign that deer had been there. Yesterday I walked down (it's only a short walk from my house) and took a look and it's all GONE. Not just here and there, but everywhere. Everything else that I'd planted was on it's way to being gone as well. Practically the only thing left were weeds.

I took the time to look closer and it looked like the ground was moving here and there. On closer inspection, the whole area was crawling with thousands or maybe tens of thousands of caterpillars about 1 1/4 inches long. I've never seen anything like it in my life. When I started checking other areas, they were even eating the bermuda in our horse pasture. I also noticed that quite a few trees had some damage also. I mixed up five 30 gallon tanks of Triazicide and hammered the little buggers, but the damage is done. I don't know if anything will come back or not.

This really burns me. I've been babying this plot for two years now. I would assume that this is just a local phenomenon, but it might be a good idea to take a look at your food plots.

it can grow back, a lil fertilizer and some water.

Thats crazy you say that! I live in south Louisiana, and have the same thing. I mowed my grass two days ago, and when I was finished, I was stairing at my mower debating if I wanted to weedeat or not and noticed the grass on my mower deck was moving. Thousands of little green caterpillars were in the cut grass!

sounds like web worms?

They're armyworms!!!
 

It didn't take much research to find out that these buggers were armyworms. Also, as jermelott verified, this outbreak isn't local. They are especially bad in many of the areas affected by the heat and drought. They are actually worse in a drought. On another forum someone responded from central Arkansas and said that they're bad there too. I would suspect that they could be bad anywhere this heat and drought is occurring. Again, you might want to check your food plots. If you have this infestation, Triazicde by Spectracide does kill them.

Surprising enough, the tent worms have not been bad here at all this year. When my wife and I go for walks in the evening we use to see hundreds of them crossing the road. This year, none.. Guess we got lucky here this year....

wow thats crazy man! we just put one in last weekend if that ever happened id probably just give up, its to much work for some little worms.

hope it comes back
Storm