Army worms in alfalfa

In our area, almost everyone is fighting army worms in their well-fertilized bermudagrasses. I spent most of the last week trying to control them. Every day I would drive the fenceline around the alfalfa patch and noted no army worms. Finally, a couple of days ago, I began noticing a declining green coloration going to yellowish green in the interior of the alfalfa field. Today, I walked into the field and found the yellowish green coloration was because army worms had stripped the leaves off the alfalfa, leaving the stems. For some reason, the first 50 or so feet in from the fence didn't have army worms just yet and that's the reason I failed to catch the infestation. There goes the sixth cutting. 

 

So today, the ass fell into the well and I had to get out the sprayer and kill the army worms on Sunday. Army worm moths were flying everywhere around the tractor as I sprayed. Hopefully, I killed all those suckers using Tombstone at about 4.5 oz per ac, a bit higher than the recommended rate. Maybe more leaves will grow and and still allow me to make a cutting before Oct. 1, the cut off date to allow the alfalfa to have six weeks growth before the average first frost date of Nov. 15th.

Army worms in alfalfa