The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-11-07
DEALING DEATH TO BUGS.
The Warfare which Hen of Science Ara
WaginE Against Noxious Insects.
Especial Correspondence.

liant n8hter OF bugs is chancellor +. ID.
Snow Of the University of Kansas, 10
Gated at this place. Panoplied in scien.
tific knowledge, he went forth against
the chinch bug, and the chinch bug is
his. And now, while he holds in check
with one hand vast armies of that foe
of the farmer, with the other he brings
scientific tactics to bear upon hop lice,
bedbugs and other insect enemies to the
peace Of man.
It all seems very simple, as im2or.
tant things always do after they lsave
once been done. And Chancellor Shows
work has already proved it's vast impor-
lance to the farmer and through him &c
all the rest of the world. For to the
western farmer the chinch bug is a
gcourge whose unhindered visitation
means poverty, mortgages and despair,
and the stopping of its ravages an in
crease of hundreds of thousands of dol
lars in his income, prosperity and hap
piness.
But it is all exceedingly simple
Watching some chinch bugs in field
one day some seven or eight years ago,
Professor Snow, who then held the
chair of entomology in the state uni
ed i'll So he took some Of the sick ones
to his laboratory, and after long and
patient watching, experimenting and
testing Of results he found that fun
gus, Sporotrichum globuliferum by
name, fastened itself upon them, pene-
trated the substance of their bodies, COW
cred them with its spores and finally
caused them to burst into powder And
1o-. &Io ~,
ried the infection to other bugs in the
neighborhood.
Now there is "chinch bug bureau
supported by its own special legislative
appropriation, connected with the ento-
biological department of the university,
in which Chancellor Shows corps of
half dozen assistants are kept busy at
tending to their chinch bug pesthouse,
sending out boxes of infected bugs and
travelling about among the farmers Of
the state, giving directions, making OBJ
servations and experiments. During
the summer of 1894 25, 900 farmers
were furnished with boxes Of infected
bugs, and last summer the boxes, each
containing a dozen or more sick bugs,
were sent out at the rate Of 2. 500 per
week.
Professor Snow experimental long and
lovingly with his Sporotrichum globu-
liferum and found that by taking
much care It could be artifcially propa-
gated upon potatoes, turnips and such
things. Then he turned his attention to
the hop louise, which is as much of a
pest to the hop grower as the chinch
bug is to the farmer. AS the hop is not
grown in Kansas, he had difficulty in
procuring enough Of the insects to make
his laboratory experiments Of value.
But he found that the body of the louise
offered congenial resting place to the
spores of the fungus and that the results
were the same as they were in the case
OF he chiEch bugs. The fungous growth
penetrated the entire bodily substance
Of the little insect, which soon died,
and its body exploded into powder. But
it was practical results and not mere
laboratory success that he desired, and
so he made some hop lice sick unto
death with sporo, as the fungus is dis
respectfully called in the chinch bug
bureau, put them in box and sent
them to certain hop growers in Wash
ington and Oregon. There they received
a glad welcome, for the hop louise had
been making deep inroads into crops
and profits. The growers gave the in
lection a careful trial and have written
| TO Chancellor Snow that it has been en-
tirely successful They are enthusiastic
over its results, and were able by its
means to keep their hopfelds clear of
this costly pest.
Chancellor Snow has found that in
carrying on war against insects by this
method his tactics do not work well IN
less the enemy is present in large num-
| bers. The bug population must be
dense one or the plague will not spread
with sufficient rapidity to make its use
of value.
Chancellor Shows success in dealing
with chinch bugs started a scientific
war against them in the surrounding
states. and plague factories have been
set going in Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa,
Illinois, Minnesota, Texas, Wisconsin
and the Indian Territory.
Men of science in Europe have also
been moved to try the same tactics in
warfare against insect pests. NJ. Girard
Of the Sorbonne, Paris, has been paying
particular attention to the May beetle,
which in Europe is SO great pest that
the annual damage which it inf1icts is
estimated at many hundred million
francs.
NJ. Jean Danysz of the Pasteur insti-
tute turned his malevolent attentions
toward mice instead Of insects and
thinks he has found much better way
of dealing with them than setting a
deadfall over water pail or batting a
trap with cheese. He has discovered a
bacillus that has a deadly effect upon
all species of moles, domestic mice,
wood and garden mice and black rats.
Trials on a large scale have been made
in different parts of France and all
with complete success.
All these and many other scientific
men have been engaged for the last