The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1882-10-26
for the tfarller.
CONCERNING cH1NcH BUGS.
esggestisns 10 the Best Means Of Cbee h In /
Their Increase.

4
Prof. S. A. Forbes, State Entomologist of Hi
nois, makes the following report to the Bureau
of Agriculture, in regard TO the ravages of this
insect, and the best means Of checking its in
| crease:
The history Of the chinch bug this season ha.
been unusual and peculiarly interesting. Ordi.
narily, as reported in previous years, the old
| bugs which live through the winter have laid
their eggs in April and May, in fields Of wheat
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 pro-
| duced and gets its growth. Ii is the survivors
of this brood which hibernate and Law their eggs
in the spring. From this it follows that the bugs
are commonly widely scattered in the fields OF
| small grain which they infest, but, invading the
cornfelds from the outside, eonfine their princi-
pal depredations to the outer part of each field.
During the present season the old bugs APP
peared at the usual time IN extraordinary num-
beers, threatening serious injury to all the field
crops; but the long continued cool and rainy
weather had the effect partly TO delay the depo-
| sition of the eggs, and partly, perhaps, to de-
stroy such were laid, so that in central Hi
nois the young bugs did not appear until about
the first Of July, by which time the small grains
were nearly or quite out of their way. The eggs
therefore were laid chiefly in corn, broom-corn
and sorghum, and the bugs were of course wide
~ scattereu through the Helus. fOr TINS reason,
although the number occurring in several fields
was sufficient to do great and conspicuous mis-
chief if they had entered the corr in masses
from without, as in this ordinary practice, the
same number uniformly scattered have attrac-
ted little attention and do relatively little harm.
In short, the bags dld not anpreciably damage
the small grain, because their development was
retarded until these crops were out of theirreac,
and they have injured corn and similar crops be-
cause they were widely scattered through the
fields instead OF being concentrated in hOrdes
inns CONDITION OF AFFAIRS has one important
consequence. We must not judge of the num-
Der OF bugs now alive and the amount of the in
jury which they threaten another year, by the
INJURY 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 preeaution should be taken
TO prevent serions outbreak OF them next sea-
son.
Search should be made for them in fall and
early winter among the cornstalks, and in grass,
weeds and trash abOut fields and under leaves
in woodlands, and whenever they are found hi
bernatlng IN such situations they should be
burned, II possible, IN the rubbish which shell
tiers them. The exposure of piles Of rubbish in
fields where they abound, and subsequent burn
ing with the bugs which take shelter under 1t,
is an ezpedient well worth trying.
II Is to be feared that very much more reliance
Is generally placed upon the influence of wet
weather IN limiting the ravages of the bugs than
the truth VIII warrant Careful experiments
made at the State Laboratory Of Natural Histo-
~, IN July, showed that a thorough drenchng
of the corn and ground daily for ten successive
days, did not affect the bugs in number and Wig
or, or in any appreeiable way.
In affected cornfelds large numbers Of small