A curious critter infestation crawling around Vancouver Island has entomologist’s scratching their heads.
Armyworm colonies have popped up across the Island, including in Ucluelet.
“I can look at my lawn and it’s just crawling,” said Ucluelet local Liisa Nielsen. “When I walk on it, it’s like walking on bubble wrap with them all popping underneath your feet. It’s quite gross. They burst when you step on them.”
Nielsen first spotted the worms on July 12 and they have since taken over her backyard.
“A dog blanket flew off my clothesline and I picked it up and noticed a whole bunch of caterpillars on the bottom of it,” she said.
She added she has lived at her Pine Road residence for five years and never seen an armyworm before. “I decided to see what was going on, so I threw a blanket down overnight and, the next morning, it was just covered.”
She said the worms have, so far, stayed away from her food garden, which includes strawberries, mint and kale.
“They’re in my grass. They’re not actually in my food garden,” she said. “Luckily this was the one year I’ve been lazy in my garden and I think it may pay off.”
Nielsen initially hoped her chickens would solve the problem by feasting on the little critters, but was disappointed when they turned their beaks up at the squirmy fare.
“They won’t touch them. They run away,” she said. “My neighbours’ friends brought their ducks over and I think they made a significant dent in the population.”
Tracy Hueppelsheuser, an entomologist with B.C.’s Ministry of Agriculture said armyworm infestations have been reported across the Island, including Comox and Port Alberni.
“It is quite rare for it to be this far west,” Hueppelsheuser told the Westerly News adding armyworms are more often seen on the other side of the rockies and are particularly prevalent in Manitoba.
Armyworms evolve into moths and Hueppelsheuser believes April’s storms blew some of these moths off-course and carried them to the Island.
“They lay their eggs so densely,” she said. “You’ll see huge numbers in some places and then none in other places.”
While the worms are notorious for their endless appetites and can wreak havoc on farm crops like hay, barley and corn, Hueppelsheuser said they’re not a significant concern for residential homeowners.
“They love grass. They’ll eat up all your grass and they will move into your vegetables and eat whatever they can once they eat up all the grass, but they are not toxic.,” she said. “They are not poisonous. They do not eat your houses. They do not live in your houses. So, really, from a homeowner’s perspective, they’re probably just a gross nuisance and that’s about all.”
Along with the ducks helping Nielsen out, Hueppelsheuser said ground beetles will eat armyworms as will birds like crows and starlings.
“Lots of other organisms will have a feast as a result of them. So, ecologically, they’re pretty disruptive, but other organisms also play a role and get some advantage from their presence,” she said.
She said homeowners don’t have many options when it comes to getting rid of the worms, but assured the ones crawling around Ucluelet would likely start disappearing this week.
“You won’t actually see the moths until early August, but they’ll start to pupate in the next few days, which means the larva will disappear…They go into the soil into a pupal stage and sit there for a couple of weeks and change into a moth,” she said.
“They’re big, heavy-bodied, night-flying moths. They hide during the day and the larva actually hide during the day as well and come out and feed at night and that’s why everyone’s getting so broadsided by these because you don’t notice them until they’re really big and really hungry.”
These moths feed on nectar, through flowers and broken-open fruit, before laying more eggs, which will create another armyworm invasion in August.
“I expect that people who are seeing larva now, will see larva again in August,” Hueppelsheuser said. “The second generation is supposedly not as bad as the first, as far as the amount that they eat and the numbers and so on. At least, that’s what Manitoba tells us…Hopefully we’re through the worst of it.”
She said August’s second generation of worms would likely be the end of it and the species’ is not expected to stick around.
“I think it’s an anomaly, but I am looking to some experts in that area to see if we can learn a little bit more of what might have happened and if we can expect anything in future years,” she said.
Anyone who finds armyworms around their home and has questions about what to do is encouraged to contact the ministry at AgriServiceBC@gov.bc.ca.