Northwest Iowa — A southern pest has made its way up to northwest Iowa and could be causing problems in area pastures and alfalfa fields.
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Agronomist Joel De Jong says armyworms are showing up in area fields.
De Jong says there is one very specific situation in which you maybe should try to get rid of the worms — that is — if they are still shorter than an inch long, and you want to try to save the pasture vegetation or the alfalfa for your livestock yet this year. He says if they’re already an inch long, you can’t really kill them effectively. And if you don’t need the forage this fall, the armyworms will die as they don’t overwinter here, and the plants will come back in the spring.
