The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1874-08-06
Chich Bugs.

The greatest pest that has ever prey
ed upon the crops in this state is the
chinch bug. The devastation wrought
by these insects is not, perhaps, as
widespread as that inflicted by the
grasshOppers the year they swarmed
over the state, as some sections have
been wholly exempt from their vista
ton. But il is even more complete
were they have made their raids. The
spring wheat in this and many other
countries is almost total failure, and
unless we should have heavy and fire.
quent rains, the corn crop is threaten
ed with the same fate.
In Labette and some other counties
in southern Kansas il is said that prov
idence has sent an avenger on the
chinch bug, in the person of little
black pisinire. This little insect
mulches the eggs of the chinch bug
with great relish, and carries off the
bugs themselves by millions. They
have proven such an enemy to the
chinch bugs that these enemies Of the
farmers are migrating to other Sec
tions. In Douglas and other counties
the farmers are waging systematic
war. coal tar, fire and scalding water,
on the bugs, and it is reported that
many fields Of corn have thus far been
preserved by such means. But in 9TH
or counties the bugs have had every
thing their own way, and the damage
they have done is incalculable.
An Agricultural exchange offers
some suggestions upon the chihch bug
question that deserves consideration.
1t says:
"On the subject of TIE chinch bug
we solicit information for publication.
This insect is even worse than the wee
vii, the IIessian fly and the rust ccm-
bined. 1t is one of those prolific breed
ers that produces devastations by &C
tual force of numbers. A little OBJ
servation will teach any one, that they
are, to a certain extent, local. The
farm is over run this spring and sum-
mer with the nuisance, must, in the
very nature of things, prove the larva
bed of the future chinch bug crop. Tn.
der this phase of the case what should
be done? Is it necessary that farm
err should cease to till his ground and
thereby s;arve the bug out? or would
it not il be more sensible to inaugurate
war on the insect even if it should
prove to be an inch deep over the
farm? 1t is one of those permanent
pests that attack all new countries,
and for twenty years waged war on
the farmers of Illinois. A systematic
process of cremation in that state re-
duced the insects to subsection.
Trcnching between crops, and COW
ering the bottom of the trench with
combustible matter, hay or old grass,
and catching the crop on the migrat-
ing from field to field, destroyed them
by the bushcl. The more you destroy
on the farm the less larva you have for
the next crop, and during their pass
ing from wheat to oats, and from oats
to corn, careful system of traptrench-
ing between fields will leave the bugs
at your mercy.
We simply throws these thoughts
ut as ideas we have gathered from
reading on the subject, and looking at
it from a common sense stand point.
We want our readers to think and act
on this subject of chinch bugs, and to
declare systematic war Oh them. The
army worm was circumvented by the
trench, and the crop of chinch Lugs OH
the farm can be very materially thin
ned out