The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1895-12-10
WAR ON INSECTS.
CAPTIVATING DISEASES THAT
ARE FATAL TO FARM PESTS.
Aiming at Their Extinction by the
application of the Germ Theory
Experiments Of the Asricul-
turai Department.
7 TNCLE SANS Department OF

Agriculture, through sever
al OF its experiment stations,
is making some interesting
experiments, according to the Wash
lngton Star. The germs OF diseases
found to be common to insects are be-
ing cultivated, and the microbes are
let loose, causing dire distress TO the
nyriads OF little rascals which make
the American farmer and planter un-
happy and which torment every
American under his own roof
Experiments in ttis new science arc
being conducted by DR.. S. A. Forbes,
of the agricultural experiment station
ut UrbanI, H., under direction Of
the Department of Agriculture. DR..
Forbes has experimental with cater
pliers, seventeen-year locusts and
many other insects. A great part of
his work has been aimed at the "chinch
bug, which during the summer has
committed many thousands of dollars
worth OF damage to the Western corn
and wheat crops. All insects, of
course, have their characteristic dis.
eases and plaques, Just as do men.
DIR. Forbes has discovered that disease
which is most fatal to the chInch bug
This is what is commonly known as
the white fungus. In few days
after contracting this malady the in.
sects die, soon after which they be.
come covered with sort of white
mold. The germs, or spores. of this
whito growth have been carefully
studied under the microscope, and it
has been discovered how to cultivate
them artilicially. This may be done
in manner similar to that in which
consumption, diphtheriG or other dis
case germs are cultivated by bacteri-
ologists for experimental purposes.
The culture meuia must first be found.
This must be preparation upon
which the germs will grow, Just as
they do In the human body.
For breeding consumption or diph-
liberia germs bacteriologists use
bouillon made of beef broth, gelatine
and other food stuffs, which cores
pond In their compositions to the liv-
ing tissues of the body upon which
the germs naturally live. The culture
media of the cbinch bug disorder is
found to he batter of raw corn meal
mixed with beef broth. This is put
in test tubes and jars, and the white
PARTICLES OF the disease are sprinllled
upon 1T. Soon they begin to grow,
spreading and injecting almost the
entire substance.
If uncorked among mass of insects
this heavily charged media will, of
course, fill their minute breathing or.
gans with the deadly germs, SO small
that they are not probably distin-
gulshable In the air which these little
creatures inhale. The bugs will in
the course of few days die of pesti-
lence more fatal even that is the
small pox to us.
DR.. Forbes has adopted novel plan
for distributing contagion among
healthy insects at work in the corn
and wheat fields. All over the coun-
try infected with the chinch bug
plague he has, through the papers,
requested NIL farmers desiring to rid
themselves of it, to send him by ex-
press as many healthy insects as NAV
be captured and placed in boxes
These after being exposed to the dis
ease-covered batter were shipped back
to the farmers, who were instructed
to keep them confined until dead of
the disease. AS many other living
bugs rs might be caught were placed
in this same "contagion box" until
they showed signs Of the disease, when
they were liberated into the fields to
carry the plague to the remainder of
thoir healthy neighbors The Agri-
cultural Department has record of ex-
periments in this line made by hun
dreds of farmers with amusing results
But would we suffer the danger of
contracting for ourselves one of those
diseases, from the mosquito, for in.
stance, which deals directly with our
blood? Entomologists have found
that the diseases of insects are not
dangerous to men, although disease is
frequently carried from one man TO
another by flies and others of their
kind. Foreign doctors have been IN
vestlgating the strange case of a woman
who recently died of septic erysipelas
brought to her by fly whose mandi.
bles, doubtless, had been buried in a
sore on another person only a short
time before. In both of these cases.
however, the insects were not found
to have contracted the disease them
selves, nor would any danger be Of
fered to man by any plague of the in