SAINT MARYS,
Experts say the worms are normally in the area, but they are not normally as bad as they are this year and there is no definite explanation.
Your News Leader first heard of the worms just after Memorial Day when one farm was affected. Then, Wednesday Morning the Ridgway Record brought the issue to the forefront and WTAJ News went to check on the damage.
Veteran farmer, Pete Braun, says he has been farming the area for over 20 years and has never seen anything like this.
His neighbor found the armyworms on his crops and told Braun to go and check on his own. When he did he said the field appeared black and it "sounded like pouring rain". The sound was the armyworms eating. They would continue eating until Braun's crop was destroyed.
Braun says out of his nine acres he would normally make about 400 bales of hay, but this year he is left with just 30.
His neighbors say some of the hay they were able to bale, the cows will not eat because the bugs were on it and they cannot put it in the barn out of fear the armyworms could burrow in the wood of the barn and hit their crops again.
The only way farmers found to get rid of them was to plow their fields and hope that when the next crop grows the armyworms do not come back.
