American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1880-03-06
The Chinch Bug.

DIR. Cyrus Thomas, President of the
Illinois University, at Carbondale, and
member of the United States Entomo-
logical Commission, has completed
a valuable paper on the chinch bug, its
history, characteristics and habits, and
the means of destroying it or counter
acting its injuries. He says the chinch
bug is unquestionably the most formida-
BILE insect which the farmers within the
wheat-prOducing area of the United
States have to contend.
The locusts of the West are the only
creatures of this class whose multiple
cation causes more sweeping destruc-
ton than that of this diminutive and
seemingly insignificant insect. The
loss from this insect in Illinois alone in
1850 was estimated at S4,O00,000, an
average of $40 to every man, woman
and child then living in the State. 1t
attained the maximum of development
in the summer of 1864, in the extensive
wheat and corn fields of the Valley of
the Mississippi, and in that single year
three-fourths of the wheat and one-half
OF the corn crops were destroyed
throughout many extensive districts,
comprising almost the entire Northwest,
with an estimated loss of more than
The center of their severest ravages
is in belt in Illinois about on a line
with the junction of Iowa and Missouri,
and taking in corresponding part of
Southern Iowa and Nebraska and of
Northern Missouri and Kansas. The
loss by chinch bugs in the State of Illi-
nois in 1871 was upwards of SIC, $780, 900,
and taking an equal amount in Iowa and
Missouri, and again an equal amount in
Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska and Wiscon-
sin, the loss in these States alone from
this one species of insect was upwards
of $50, 100000. 5fg.
AS the species appears to have a
maximum of development about every
five years, the foregoing estimates, DIR.
Thomas thinks, render it probable that
the annual loss to the Nation by its OPP
erations averages $20, 600, 900. The in
sect first appeared in Illinois in 1910; in
1S47 in Iowa, in 1847 in Indiana, in
Wisconsin in 1854, and in 1871 over the
entire Northwest. OF the natural agen-
cies which assist in their destruction,
DR.. Thomas says that the chinch bug
has no such relentless enemies as those
that pursue the army-worm, plant-lice,
etc. There are few insects that prev
upon them, but not sufficiently numer-
Gus to make any material impression
on the vast hordes of these invaders of
our grain fields. The most efficient of
these aids mentioned are the Herpmctor
Cinctus, or banded bug, and the frog.
Professor Ross expresses the belief that
the destruction of the frog by draining
their natural haunts, is one reason why
the chinch-bug multiplies as rapidly as
it does in some seasons, and DIR. Fitch
is mentioned as suggesting the idea of
sprinkling. The artificial remedies
given by DIR. lie Baron, State Entomolo-
gist of Illinois, and quoted by DIR.
Thomas, are:
1. The plan of sowing grain so early
in the spring as to get in advance of
their depredations.
2. The attempt to save a part of the
crop by preventing the migration of the
bugs from one field to another by fur
rows of kerosene oil.
3. The method of destroying the in
sects by burning corn-stalks and other
rubbish in which they are supposed to
hibernate.
4. The prevention of their breeding
to any serious extent by abstaining from
the cultivation of those grains upon
which they chiefly subsist.
DIR. Thomas suggests burning over
the infested fields in the winter as the |
best means of destroying them. Rolling
he also suggests.
DR.. Thomas concludes by saying that |
clean farming is the best under all cir
and if adopted as a rule |
will tend largely toward preventing the |
increase, not only of chinch-bugs, but
of all other injurious insects. lie also
believes in diversified farming. Mass
ing crops in immense bodies and cult
waiting the same thing year after year
tend to increase the insects that feed on
these crops. !