The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-06-28
THE CHlNCH BUG DISEASE
Prof. Lugger Urges its Use Wherever
Bugs are Noticed.

Bugs are Noticed.
During the last few years many ex-
periments have been made here and
elsewhere to utalize diseases for fight
ing some of our most injurious insects.
At the head of the large army of
noxious insects stands the chinch bug,
and consequently especial attention
has been paid to it's destruction by
various diseases, but chiefly by
Sporotricham glObul1eruna, Speg. or the
Observation-Disclosures of the chinch bug.
These experiments have shown that
under certain favorable conditions
this and similar diseases can be used
with excellent results, but that we
should not trust to them alone to eX-
terminate the foe. To assist farmers
in their war against chinch bugs, Bull
letin No. 81 was prepared, which can
be had upon application to this sta
tion. In this bulletin the life history
of this insect was given, indicating
the weak points where successful
work could be done to kill the bugs.
The bulletin gives a full account of
the various methods of fighting the
chinch bugs, and discusses also the
application of the diseases for the
same purpose. Since the above bulle-
tin was prepared the legislature of
Minnesota, recognizing the import
ance of this work, has made liberal
appropriation to continue this and
other experiments for the benefit of
the agricultural community. With a
better equipment, including numer-
Gus instruments and other appliances,
it was soon found that the spores of
the disease could be grown upon many
substances, so that it was no longer
necessary to breed them upon chinch
bugs themselves. The entomologist
can now produce every day sufficient
number of spores to fill many thou
sands of small tin boxes, which farmers
can secure by writing for them. The
spores thus produced upon corn meal
and beef tea are very vigorous, and
soon communicate the disease to
healthy bugs, providing we bring the
spores in contact with them. To do
so various methods have been adopted
of which the best one is to mix and
shake the spores growing upon the
artificial food with water and spray
this upon the bugs. If these are very
much scattered in the field it is best
to gather some thousands in a large
fiat box, SO that in spraying and
sprinkling, most of them will come in
contact with spores, when the bugs
can be scattered in the fields to carry
the disease to others. The season
thus far has been very favorable
one for this purpose, and as the bugs
are now in a weakened condition the
spores should be applied as soon as
possible. Many farmers fail to find
the bugs in their fields, or have not
taken the trouble to search for them
do uO udLhdSC W OllC SlO"luS OlOpo IL
visible, yet the bugs are still. with
them in large numbers, mating and
depositing their eggs for the de,
structive brood which will appear a
little later. The favorable season has
simply retarded the bugs while help
ing the plants, and there is but little
doubt that the small grains will ma
ture before the bugs become numerous
and powerful enough to cause much
damage. But the danger to corn re-
mains, and every farmer should do his
best to kill as many of the bugs as he
can. For this purpose these lines
have been written. Those that wish
to use the spores can have them with
directions for using them by writing
to the entomologist, ri IT,
PROF. OTTO LUGGER,
St. Anthony Park,