The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, (BAW) came from S.E. Asia (India/Pakistan) and was first described in the USA in 1876 on sugarbeets. They live and thrive in S. Florida, peaking in April and May and by July have traveled the length of the state. They live off of Florida's diverse agriculture-one of their favorite hosts being pigweed, Amaranthus retroflexus. They do not do well under 50 F. In S.W. Georgia, I've noticed that adults survive the winters in abandoned farm buildings, under tenant houses and well houses. The BAW problem has increased concurrent with mild winters, hot dry summers (also wet summers after their population has increased its numbers), boll weevil eradication treatments, early necessary and unnecessary cotton spraying and the possibility that some moths are capable of surviving the sometimes mild winters in lower Alabama and Georgia. This is a pest that has at times needed treatment as early as mid to late June.