The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-08-21
FIGHTING CHINCH BUGS.
Prairie Farmers Adopt Unique
Tactics Against the Pests.
Old Grasshopper Times Brought Fofc'-
bly, to Mind Agsin-The Trouble
some Insects Captured BY
tho BusheL

The dry weather which succeeded the
early rains has brought out the prairie
farmers enemy, the chinch bug, in full
force again. AS the wheat has been
cut, the bugs have gone into the corn
fields, and in many sections OF central
Kansas are doing damage again. The
schemes evolved by the settlers for the
destruction of the tiny insects which
are 50 harmful, says the st. Louis
Globe-Democrat, are alike ingenious
and effective-the only difficulty being
the overwhelming numbers OF the
pests. When millions on millions in
fest every square rod, there is little
hope for effectual determination.
The farmers are, among other things,
reviving the plans of the old grasshop-
per days, and are using coal oil or kero-
sene with more or less success. The
scheme includes long trench, reach
ing across the edge of the field which
it is proposed to protect. At intervals
are sunken cans, covered by cone
shaped piles of dirt with hole at the
top. The bugs follow the trench and
pour in a stream into the cans. AT the
bottom of the cans is coal oil, which
serves both to kill the creatures and
make them infammable. A torch
touched to each produces mimic vol
cano for a time, but leaves the trap
empty and ready for another collection
ofbugs. One farmer in northern Kan
sas piled up eight bushels of dead bugs
in one day, and did not work hard
either. This system can at best be but
a temporary one to bridge over short
spell of dry weather, as the expense is
too great to allow of protecting any
large territory.
The larger portion of the farmers
continue to have faith in the bacilli of
Chancellor Shows discovery, and thou
sands of boxes of bugs are being sent
to the state university to exchange for
infected insects that may spread dis
ease and dea tn among the fields. Some
counties have esta blished stations, in
charge of experienced men, at cost OF
500 to 500 a month, to propagate the
disease and furnish the bugs to the
farmers at home.
During the past few months 5000
packages of infection have been sent
out to the individual farmers of Kan
sas, Missouri and Oklahoma. In addi-
ton, fifty auxiliary distributing sta
tions were established in Kansas and
Missouri, thirty-eight in Kansas and
twelve in Missouri. The demand for
infection from southern Kansas has
materially decreased recently, which is
S aid to be the result of the disappear
ance of bugs in the sections where in
fection was used extensively soon
after its discovery. In 1898 there were
1903 applications from individual farm
ers and last year only 1874, a figure not
likely to be exceeded this season. The
northeastern coun ties also show fall
ing off from l, 1913 to 462, while the cen
tral and western counties keep up their
demands. The fifty substations sup
piled an average of 800 farmers, giving
a total of Is, 900, with 5000 more from
the central station, or &c, 900 altogether.
About 5000 made written reports OF
last years work and IS per cent. were
favorable, showing an immense saving
to crops by the use of the infection.
A field near the laboratory gave the
station an opportunity to gather 1000
boxes of sporotrichum as reserve
stock for early distribution for use in
the wheat fields this spring and sum-
mer. Most of these came into central
Kansas and did good work. Expert
ments made last fall in injecting chinch
bugs with artificial culture of sporo-
tichum showed equal results with the
ordinary method of injecting bugs, and
it is a great advantage in supplying
farmers early in the spring with the
necessary amount of infected bugs Ex'
periments are being tried of spreading
infection by the spraying of sprouting
spores, and if successful it is possible
that infection may prove successful in
dry weather. This has been the great
est impediment to complete success in
experiments up to the present time.
The corn crop is one on which the
farmers place the most reliance, and il
is at present in condition to promise a
magnificent yield. But if the bugs are
to be allowed to roam from the fields o1
wheat in to those of corn and lop of a
half dozen Q. more rows on each side
it means tremendous loss in the ag
prepate. The little creatures work
with an army-lilke regularity and &C
complish devastation as extensive a.
it is serious. The fight to save the
fields is important as well as interesting