Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-02-28
CHINCH BUGS MUST GO.
How to Rid the State of the Pest
Valuable Pamphlet.

The chinch bug is the subject of an
interesting pamphlet about to be is
sued by the state of Illinois. The
! pamphlet is part of the report of Pro-
lessor S. A. FORTS, state entomologist,
, covering the work of his department
for 1884. This advance section of
the full report lis for the benefit of the
, farmer. 1t treats exclusively of the
chinch bug and how ito kill him by di-
rect bodily attack and by the novel
method of giving MIN a fatal and CON-
tagiOus disease and allowing him to
die a slow and painful death.
There has been another "wave" of
chinch bugs i'm Illinois the past sea-
SON, and in the southern part of the
state they destroyed much corn. Every
few years there is an uprising of the
chinch bug, in numbers sufficient to
destroy the crops, and he will then dis
appear for a few seasons. His disap-
pea1tance lis due not so much to the at
tack of humanity ais to a contagious
disease sort of insect leprOsy-
which all but eXterminates him. The
study of this contagious disease has
been part of Professor Forbes work,
and he is now able to grow the fungus
which will inoculate the bug with the
disease.
The chinch bug first began business
IN North Carolina about the time of the
revolutionary war. He moved north
and reached southern Illinois in 1924.
He has been a periodically active resi-
dent ever since. In size he is one
twelfth of an inch long, and slim
bodied i'm proportion to his length. He
has six legs INC two pairs of wings.
He is armed very like a mosquito
with a hard, jointed, combination drill
and suction pump, which he drives into
a blade of wheat or a stalk of corn
and pumps out the juice. His back is
covered with glands which give out an
odor like that of a first ward political
meeting.
The chinch bug lis related to the bed
bug although they are not brothers.
The chinch bug is the same relation to
the bedbug that Senator O'Brien is to
Senator Mahoney-they belong to the
same order, but not to the same family.
The chinch bug lays his eggs or her
eggs in the latter part of April. At
this time the growing wheat offers the
best Matching and feeding ground. The
adult bug dies Soo after depositing
the eggs. The young feed on the
wheat, but before they have matured
and grown wings the grain lis harves-
ted and they must seek pasture.
They migrate to the nearest corn field.
Here they mature, lay eggs and die.
The eggs hatch i'm the fall and the Sec
ond generation of the season is grown
in the corn field. These bugs survive
the winter and begin business the fol
lowing spring in the wheat fields.
Being unable to fly when the wheat
is harvested, the bugs necessarily ira
vel afoot, and it is at this point that
Professor Forbes proposes to trap and
kill them. He recommends the max
ing of a broad, shallow ditch ON all
sides of the field by blowing eight or
more burrows. The plowed ground
hStH NC LOU IONtt LII uIdSScu dHu
pulverized until it is reduced to dust.
The sides of the ditch should be sloped
and dressed with the hoe. The bugs !
in leaving the field, will fall into this
ditch, and in travelling through the
dust their legs will become so clogged
that they will be unable to mount the
opposite bank. Professor Forbes says
this is am old method and is success
when the soil in the ditch is made
A fine lime of coal tar laid
along the outside wall of the ditch
the trap. While the tar is soft
it kills the bugs when they touch it,
and when it is hard its HIOr is SO
offensive to the bugs that they win
not cross it.
An improvement OFF the trap is a
hole sunk at intervals in the ditch
the spade or posthole augerl
Jhinch bugs follow one another like
sheep, and when one falls into the
lole the others behind think he has
iound a good way out and they follow.
Professor Forbes says that in his ex-
1eriments last summer he saw the
travel into a hole at the rate of
lbOut a quart every ten minutes. and
lie also says that a quart of chinch
Jugs numbers about 100000.
The disease which the professor is
bile to give the chinch bug is the
white muscardine," a disease which \
originated with the silk worm. The I