He said low rainfall and a mild winter contributed to the beet armyworm problem.

The beet armyworm does not tolerate cold.

Evaluation of some insecticides against beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua in watermelon.

It can be sprayed on tomatoes, lettuce, vegetables and ornamental flowers that the beet armyworm likes to eat.

Asparagus Fern Caterpillar, also known as Beet Armyworm (Spodoptera exigua).

While the weevil populations were practically eliminated in the Rio Grande Valley and the San Angelo region, the beet armyworm was not suppressed.

Mr. Summy and Mr. Raulston said the malathion caused "a disruption of the beneficial insect complex that normally suppresses the beet armyworm."

The Beet Armyworm or Small Mottled Willow Moth (Spodoptera exigua) is one of the best-known agricultural pest insects.

Crop Genetics International, a biotechnology company in Columbia, Md., announced yesterday that the Environmental Protection Agency had cleared it to sell a virus-based bioinsecticide fatal to the beet armyworm, which attacks vegetables and flowers.

The wide host range of the beet armyworm includes asparagus, beans and peas, sugar and table beets, celery, cole crops, lettuce, potato, tomato, cotton, cereals, oilseeds, tobacco, many flowers, and a multitude of weed species.

Reported prey include the larvae of Mexican bean beetle, European corn borer, diamondback moth, corn earworm, beet armyworm, fall armyworm, cabbage looper, imported cabbageworm, Colorado potato beetle, velvetbean caterpillar, and flea beetles.

The blight, an infestation of the beet armyworm, will cost cotton farmers in the Rio Grande Valley, in the southernmost part of the state, and in the San Angelo region in west-central Texas, more than $200 million this year, state agriculture officials estimate.

They blame the spraying for killing a lot of spiders, wasps and other insects they consider beneficial, as well as the weevil; this, they say, spurred an outbreak of another cotton-destroying pest, the beet armyworm, that caused one of their worst crop harvests this century.

The two scientists who conducted the study, K. R. Summy and J. R. Raulston, concluded that the heavy use of pesticide, including the application of malathion for boll weevil eradication, was "the primary causal factor for the beet armyworm outbreak" in the Rio Grande Valley.

Evaluation of some insecticides against beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua in watermelon.

Asparagus Fern Caterpillar, also known as Beet Armyworm (Spodoptera exigua).

The Beet Armyworm or Small Mottled Willow Moth (Spodoptera exigua) is one of the best-known agricultural pest insects.