The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1882-11-09
CONCERNING cHrNoH BUGS.
Suggestions as to the Best Means Of Checking
Their Increase.

11elf lncrokke. |
Prof. S. A. Forbes, State Entomolo-
gist of Illinois, makes the following re-
port TO the Bureau of Agriculture in
regard to the ravages of this insect, and
the best means of checking its increase:
"The history of the chinch bug this
season has been unusual and peculiarly
interesting. Ordinarily, as reported in
previous wears, the old bugs which live
through the winter have laid their eggs
in April and May in fields of wheat and
and other small grains, and upon these
crops the first brood has expended its |
principal energies. At harvest time,
when some members of this brood are |
usually fully developed and others but
partly grown. migration TO corn fields |
takes place, and in these a second brood
is chiefly produced and gets its growth.
Ii is the survivors of this brood which
hibernate and lay their eggs in the
spring. From this il follows that the
bugs are commonly widely scattered in
the fields of small grain which they in
fest, but, invading the corn6elds from
the outside, confine their principal dep
rotations to the outer part of each
field.
During the present season the Old
bugs appeared at the usual time in ex-
traordinary numbers, threatening seri-
Gus injury TO all the field crops but the
long continued cool and rainy weather
had the effect partly TO delay the depo-
sition of eggs, and partly, perhaps, TO
destroy such as were laid so that in Gen.
trail Illinois the young bugs did not APP
pear until about the first of July, by
which time the small grains were near
ly or quite ont of their way. The eggs
therefore were laid chiefly in corn,
broom corn and sorghum, and the bugs
were of course widely scattered through
the fields. For this reason, although
the number occurring in several fields
was sufficient TO do great and conspicu-
Gus mischief if they had entered the
corn in masses from without, rs in this
ordinary practice, the same number
uniformly scattered have attracted lit
tie attention and do relatively little
harm. In short, the bugs did not ap-
probably damage the small grain, be-
cause their development was retarded
until these crops were out of their
reach, and they have injured corn and
similar crops because they were widely
scattered through the fields instead of
being concentrated in hordes.
This condition of affairs has one I'M
portant consequence. We must not
judge of the number of bugs now alive
and the amount of the injury which
they threaten another year, by the in
jury now apparent. They are in fact
many times more abundant in Central
Illinois than the damage attributed to
them would lead US to suppose: and
every precaution should be taken TO
prevent serious outbreak of them
next season.
Search should be made for them in
fall and early winter among the corn
stalks, and in grass, weeds and trash
about fields and under leaves in wood
lands. and whenever they are found hi
bernating in such situations they should
be burned, if possible, in the rubbish
which shelters them. The exposure Of
piles of rubbish in fields where they
abound, and subsequent burning with
the bugs which take shelter under it, is
an experiment well worth trying.
II is TO be feared that very much more
reliance is generally placed upon the in
fluence of wet weather in limiting the
ravages of the bugs than the truth will
warrant Careful experiments made at
the State Laboratory Of Natural Histo-
~, in July, showed that thorough
drenching days, did not affect the bugs
in number and vigor, or in any appre-
ciable way.
In affected cornfields large numbers
of small light brown ants (Lucius
farts) are found running over the
stalks and secreted under clods at the
base of the hills. AS one of these may
rarely be seer with a young chinch bug
in its mouth this ant has been reckon
ed by many, a serviceable enemy of the
pest. ] have lately made careful dis
sections of a number of these taken
from among the chinch bugs, but have
found only liquid vegetable food in
their stomachs. They probably feed
almost wholly on exudations from the
corn and the fluid excrement of the
bugs.
A small predaceous beetle (AgoRder-
oas Comma has also been abundant in
the same. situations. Dissections of
this have proven that young chinch
bugs form about 20 per cent. of its
food, plant lice making another ten
per cent. On the other hand the re-
mainder of the food is vegetation, APP
parently derived from the roots of the
corn.
have lately found the chinch bug is
extremely subject TO minute internal
parasite, a species of dacterium about
two-thousandths of an inch in length,
the spread and multiplication of which
may account for these sudden disap-
pearances of vast numbers of the bugs
which may have hitherto been attribut-
ed wholly 10 the weather.
Experiments now in progress at the
laboratory and in the field, have already
shown that the chinch bug is very
easily killed by the application of a
very weak solution of kerosene and
soapsuds, the materials for which cost
about three-fourths of cent gallon.
Experiments are now under way for
the discovery of cheap and effective
methods of supplying this and other
insecticides ON large scale.
TIE GALLOWAY.